AN: Hey everyone, hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, because we're bringing you all back into the swing of action with another chapter of A Spider's Focus!
[audience applause]
Lightning: Took you long enough. For a minute there, I thought you were going to leave us hanging just two chapters in.
AN: Hey, I've got other stories to write too, ya know, and some of them haven't been updated in a few months. Forgive me for multi-tasking a little.
Spider-Man: I'm actually pretty excited for this one. This is probably one of the last chapters in which Peter Parker is going to really do all that much before we switch to full-time Spider-Man.
AN: Well, technically that is exactly what it is, but you'll all see why that is the case later on.
Serah: Well, let's not keep them waiting! I want to actually enjoy the points in this story where I'm not stuck in a crystal for while they last.
AN: Well then, I think you'd better enjoy every last minute of this chapter that has you in it then. Roll disclaimer!
I do not own anything from any Spider-Man or Final Fantasy franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Serah: ...Wait, what did you mean when you said that?
AN: You'll see...
Chapter 3: Days Until the Storm
Lieutenant Amador of the Guardian Corp had seen many things since he became a soldier. Monster attacks, honest, good people being victimized by criminals, and of course, the many things he had seen and heard to know that you should not get mixed up with the other soldier division, PSICOM. He had seen all of these things, and for many years, he thought he would not see anything that would surprise him ever again. That was proven wrong the minute that an eighteen year old girl by the name of Lightning Farron joined up with the Bodhum Security Regiment immediately after she had finished high school. Amador had not really been all that enthusiastic about having someone so young enlist right out of school like that, and a young woman who just barely become an adult no less, but after watching her for a while, seeing her train, fight, and constantly push herself to become better, Amador had to admit that Lightning was definitely not like any other kid her age; she was something much more than that. She was someone who did not just want to be strong; she was someone who needed to be strong, and she needed it desperately. Why that was the case, Amador could not have told you right away, because it was not until a couple of years later or so after Lightning had made it to her current standing in the Guardian Corp that he found that the fierce, rose-color haired woman was the only one to look out for both herself and her little sister ever since she was only fifteen, and that reason actually served to further Amador's respect for Lightning. After that, now Amador was sure that he had seen it all, but once again, Lightning had proved otherwise, because today, he once again saw something that surprised him.
It had actually started out like a normal day for him, even when Lightning finally came in to begin her usual shift, but after she had clocked in, Lightning did not immediately go to see what assignments she had, so Amador figured that she was waiting on something or someone and did not say anything. Almost twenty minutes later, Lightning was still there, and much to Amador's surprise, it seemed that she was, dare he say it, getting impatient. Now, he knew that Lightning was not a big fan of certain individuals, such as Snow and the NORA gang, but she always managed to burry such feelings whenever she was at base or working to the point where it was almost unnoticeable, but this time, her irritation was actually becoming quite apparent, to the point where it almost seemed like she was going to attack anyone who spoke to her unless whatever she was waiting on showed up in the next couple of seconds. Not two minutes later, Lightning had actually started pacing across the room in an attempt to calm herself, for what little good it did, and after watching this for a few minutes and starting to feel a little dizzy after doing so, Amador finally found that he could not just sit back and wonder anymore; he just had to ask one of his best soldiers what was wrong with her.
"Hey Farron, any reason you're not getting right to work as usual, and just what is it that's got you all worked up," Amador asked, getting Lightning's attention.
Lightning finally came to a stop in her pacing and had the decency to look a little sheepish for how out of character she was likely acting when she replied, "Sorry Lieutenant, I'm just waiting on someone for an important matter, and he's running more than a little late."
Amador nodded in acceptance, even though he had not really learned anything he did not already guess, and decided to press on in figuring out what had gotten Lightning so worked up. After all, this was the first time he had seen her get so impatient waiting for someone for so long, even when they were late. "Care to tell me who this person is and why you're waiting for them to show up," Amador asked.
"It's…a long story," Lightning informed him after a moment, her eyes darting between her superior and the entrance as she continued waiting for her very tardy friend.
"Really? Cause I thought the explanation was actually pretty simple," a new voice commented from above the two, and they both spun around in surprise to see Spider-Man lowering himself from the ceiling on a web-line that he was hanging upside down from. "See, Miss Farron here was so impressed with how I handled the situation on the bridge yesterday that when we ran into each other again later that night, during which I actually saved her from some rather unsavory fellows, she pretty much demanded I drop by so that she could test my fighting abilities first hand, just so she could see what I was really capable of," Spidey continued as he continued lowering himself until he was hanging a few feet above Amador's desk, right at the point where they were eye-level with him. "That's not too much of a problem is it, because I'd rather she not get into trouble or anything for doing this."
"Spider-Man," Amador gasped in shock, and he was quickly spinning his gaze back and forth between the web-swinger and Lightning. "What…how…you invited him here, Farron?"
"Yeah, although his story is not quite entirely accurate, seeing as I did not need saving," Lightning stated, throwing a pointed glare at Spider-Man as she did.
"Right, right, so the fact those guys had pretty much cornered you in a dark alleyway was just some kind of ruse or something so you could wow them into submission with your feminine charms or something," Spider-Man easily quipped.
Lightning's glare doubled in intensity at that point while a few veins started to become a little more visible on her forehead, but Amador did not really notice this all that much. He was too busy being stunned by the fact that the hero from yesterday was right here in his base and was talking to one of his best soldiers like they were old friends or something, despite the reactions that Lightning was giving that spoke to the contrary. After another minute or so, Amador finally shook himself out of his stupor and turned his full attention to Spider-Man. "Do you mind if I ask you couple of questions before you two get started on whatever plans you had," Amador asked Spider-Man.
Spidey saw Lightning give him a look that demanded he say no to the lieutenant's request, but he was actually having a little fun pushing her buttons like this, so instead he replied, "Sure thing, Captain, but I think you're going to have to make it quick. I think that vein on Lightning's forehead is going to pop soon if I keep her waiting for much longer. Oh and, just in case you were thinking of asking for an autograph as one of your questions, I'm afraid I'll have to refuse. I don't have a pen on me at the moment, and I only do autographed photos, but I do know this guy who could get you some really good ones at a very good price if you're that interested."
It took every ounce of willpower that Lightning had to not whip out her gunblade and blast Spider-Man into oblivion for his response, the things he said in it, and who he said them to. Amador did not seem to mind too much though, as he just laughed a little at Spidey's joke and pressed on with his questions. "First off, I'm actually a lieutenant, but thanks for the compliment. Secondly, as my first question, I feel that I have to ask the one question that pretty much everyone in Bodhum if not Cocoon is wondering after seeing so much as one of the news reports about what you did yesterday, and I'm kinda hoping you won't feel too offended by it when I ask this. Are you a l'Cie?"
Spider-Man stared at the lieutenant for a full minute or so, turning his gaze between him and Lightning before he finally answered. "I'm gonna be totally honest with you man…I have no idea what that is."
"…Seriously," Amador questioned in surprise. He had a hard time believing that there was actually someone out there who did not know about l'Cie.
"I'm from a place that's very well out of the way," Spider-Man shrugged.
"So then, how're you able to do the things you can do," Amador asked, catching Lightning's interest as well. Of all the things she knew about Spider-Man, this was one thing she had not thought to ask him about before, so naturally she was curious.
Spider-Man on the other hand seemed to get a little nervous for some reason, as he rubbed the back of his head and gave an awkward chuckle before he finally said, "Promise not to laugh?" Neither soldier gave any response, so he took that mean he should just come right out and say it. "I…got bit by a genetically altered spider."
Both soldiers continued to stare at Spider-Man for a moment after that response, until Amador finally burst out laughing, while Lightning seemed to be struggling to keep herself from doing anything more than getting a humorous smile on her face, something that very few people had ever seen on Lightning at all. After a couple of minutes though, Amador realized that Spider-Man was not saying anything, and looked as though he was giving them both a deadpan look behind his mask, and he immediately ceased in his laughter before he asked, "Wait…you're not joking?"
"Dude, I may throw out clever quips and one-liners when I'm out doing my thing, and even in idle conversations just ease the tension, but that's one thing I hardly ever joke about. You have no idea how tempted I was to make a joke out of it though, because I am well aware of how lame it is to get superpowers like that," Spider-Man replied.
Now it was Amador's turn to look sheepish, and he quickly apologized to Spider-Man for his laughter, but before anymore could be said, Lightning suddenly pulled out her gunblade and slashed it through the web Spider-Man was hanging from, causing him to unceremoniously drop to the floor. After hauling him up onto his feet, Lightning immediately started dragging the web-head away while she called out to her lieutenant, "We'll be at my usual training area for a little while, and I'd prefer it if we were not disturbed unless absolutely necessary lieutenant."
"Uh…sure thing, Farron. Whatever you need," Amador nodded, and he slowly made his way back to his desk so that he could return to what he had been doing before. After that little scene he had just been a part of and witness to, it had completely slipped his mind to tell Lightning that she was cleared to take that time off that she had requested for the other day.
"I can't believe you actually said that," Lightning hissed for the fifth time since they had gotten out of earshot from Amador.
"Yes, I am aware of your disbelief, but perhaps you could clarify which thing I said that you are having a hard time believing? Was it the autograph thing, because I was actually just going to tell him a guy named Peter Parker could get pictures of Spider-Man in action that I would autograph for him," Spidey revealed.
Lightning was about to retort when she found herself freezing in place and turning to face him in disbelief. "Really? You're going to take advantage of the fact that he doesn't know who you are just so you can make a quick buck?"
"Hey, you know how desperate I am for money at the moment, so don't judge me! Besides, I used to make a living off of selling pictures of Spider-Man in action all the time back home," Peter revealed. "Seriously, do you have any idea how many people would be jealous if they knew I made a living off of making selfies?"
Lightning did not know how to respond to that, so she just huffed and turned away so that she could keep going towards their destination before finally electing to answer his original question. "I'm talking about how you said that you had 'saved me' from those thugs. I've told you that I had that under control, and the last thing I need is you screwing up my reputation around here. And then you go and try to sell that crap you call an origin story for your powers to Amador? Not funny."
"Okay first off, I was saving you and you know it. There's no shame in admitting that you need help every now and then. Second off, that 'crap' is actually the real and honest truth. In fact, if I wasn't telling the truth about how I got my powers, then may some greater power strike me down where I stand," Spider-Man retorted. He then stopped in his tracks for a minute, prompting Lightning to stop and turn back to him to see why he had done so, and after a minute of silence, Spider-Man resumed walking to wherever she was leading them and said, "Well would you look at that. It looks like I was telling the truth."
Lightning did not really know what to say for a moment, but eventually she did find her voice again just as they were rounding the corner. "Well then how is it you haven't heard about a l'Cie before?"
"Uh, from a different universe, remember," Spider-Man reminded her. "I'm still trying to adjust to the fact that you guys have things like hover cars and motorcycles, and that there are people here who apparently have natural pink hair…" Lightning could not stop the growl that came forth in response to that. "Sorry, natural rose-colored hair and think that it's not a big deal. Seriously though, the flying cars and bikes thing is awesome enough. We're still working on that back home. Do you guys have spaceships that are capable of faster-than-light travel too?"
"Uh…no, we don't have those. At least, not since I last heard," Lightning replied after taking a minute to simmer down again.
The two then continued on in silence until they finally reached their destination: the training area that Lightning had mentioned earlier to Amador. It really was not all that much to speak of from Spider-Man's perspective. To be honest, it looked a lot like a large, grey room with no practice dummies and a case on the side that held a variety of weapons, among which he could have sworn he saw one or two gunblades like Lightning's. Then again, he had once thought the same thing about the training room at both Avengers Mansion and Avengers Tower, and that ended up leading him to have to struggle to stay alive until the program had finished running. If this was anything like that, then Peter had a strong feeling that whatever program that Lightning would set as the backdrop for their spar would probably have him running scared soon enough, but it was not like she needed any help in that regard. He was already shaking in his spider boots from the moment she had said that she wanted to fight him last night.
Peter quickly shook those thoughts from his mind and turned to Lightning just in time to see her typing something into a nearby computer. He could not see what it was from where he was standing, but at the moment, he had his mind on another matter. "So how do you want to do this thing? With weapons and equipment, or without?"
"You can use whatever you want, except for your little goop-shooters," Lightning replied as she finished her work and turned to face him.
"First off, their web shooters, not goop-shooters, and second, I get the feeling you're just saying that because you're worried you won't be able to get any of it out of that pretty hair of yours, Daisy," Spidey quipped in correction.
"Well then think again, and by the way, wrong guess again," Lightning replied with a little smirk, but she had to use every mental discipline she knew to hide the blush that had started to grow on her face when she heard Peter call her hair pretty.
Apparently it was not quite enough, because Peter had noticed, and could not help himself from saying what he did next. "You know, you're actually kinda cute when you blush. Not as cute as you are when you're angry like earlier, but…"
That was as far as Spider-Man had gotten, because the next thing he knew he was jumping back in shock from the sound of a gun being fired, and he looked to see that Lightning had shot in front of where his feet had just been. When he looked back up, it was just in time to see a very pissed off Lightning right in front of him with her gunblade at his throat, and the woman immediately hissed, "Don't. Ever. Call me. Cute."
"Yeah, okay. Duly noted," Spider-Man quickly replied. When Lightning backed up and holstered her weapon again, Peter felt it was now safe enough to ask a follow-up question. "But can I call you things like Pretty? Hot? Beautiful? Sexy?"
Lightning was not sure if her face was heating up from how angry she was getting at his question or if it was due to something else, but right now, she really did not care. She was just glad that her back was turned to him so that he could not see her face at the moment. "Just take off your web shooters so we can start already."
"Fine, fine," Spider-Man said, his hands raised in surrender before they moved down to his wrists to remove the trusty devices. "But if I've gotta forego the use of my webs, then you can't use that fancy little rifle-sword of yours."
"Gunblade," Lightning corrected.
"Whatever," Peter shrugged. It may have irritated Lightning a little at how nonchalant he was acting in response to her correction, but she still followed through on his ultimatum and removed her gunblade from its holster so that she could place it on the table outside the fighting area with Spider-Man's web shooters. "So anything else you want to add," Spider-Man asked once they were both standing in the middle of the ring.
"Yeah. Don't hold back," Lightning told him, and with that she dropped into a fighting stance, with a wide smirk on her face, silently telling the web-head that she was going to enjoy the thrashing she was sure she was about to give him.
Peter did nothing but nod in response before he too crouched down in one of his usual fighting stances, immediately thinking back to some of the things that the various heroes who had helped him hone his hand-to-hand combat skills had drilled into him as he studied her. Right from the start, he could tell that Lightning was confident, that much was obvious, but from her stance, it appeared that she had ample reason to be. It was quite strong, almost fiercely so, and held very few weak points that he could quickly or easily exploit, showing that it allowed her to be ready to defend or attack at a second's notice. Though another thing that Spidey picked up on was that it seemed a little stiff, which quickly told him that Lightning was not really all that fond of fighting without any weapons, especially without her gunblade, but not to the point where she was unable to fight without them. Seeing all of this immediately reminded Peter of when he first saw Lightning after arriving here and how he had compared her to Black Widow. This only further emphasized that belief.
What Peter did not know was that Lightning was studying Peter's fighting stance as well, and from what she could see so far, she was not really that impressed. Yes, the low crouching may have guaranteed he would be able to spring up in any direction at a second's notice and would probably force someone to swing low if they wanted to hopefully land a hit on him if he stayed there the entire time, but from what she could see, it was also rather loose and overly relaxed, almost to the point where it almost made her think of something a typical brawler would use. Then again, he did have the advantage of being fast and agile enough to be able to dodge bullets, and from what she had seen so far, Peter was also much stronger than the average person, so maybe those factors and his other powers made up for whatever lack of actual training he may have had. Of course, Lightning was not going to assume he had no training at all, that would have been extremely foolish, but she was also not going to kid herself into thinking that it was very extensive in any way since she had yet to see the web-head fight as though he was seriously fighting to stay alive. Maybe this one-on-one spar would be enough for her to finally gauge just how powerful he really was as a fighter.
The two both stood where they were for another few minutes or so, staring each other down and waiting for the other to make the first move, until Spidey finally broke the silence and asked, "So…are we waiting on some kind of signal or something, or do we just…"
His question received an answer before he could even finish it, as Lightning took that as her cue to charge in, her fist reeled back ready to strike him once she was close enough. Peter immediately reacted on instinct and quickly sprang to one side in order to avoid her hit, but was soon forced further onto the defensive when Lightning snapped a leg out in an attempt to kick him in the side. Thankfully, Spidey was able to catch her leg before it had connected, but Lightning was able to spin herself around and plant a hard hit into his side, freeing herself and causing Spidey to stumble a little. Lightning immediately capitalized on his loss of balance, and charged once again, and thus was not expecting Spidey to regain himself quick enough to actually flip over her and then kick her in the back once he had landed behind her, causing her to stumble a little in response. Spidey quickly capitalized on this and followed up with a quick barrage of punches and kicks that Lightning was having difficulty just tracking, never mind blocking. Most of the time he was moving just slightly faster than the average human, but other times, he was moving so fast that she could actually see a few afterimages forming in his wake. After another minute or so, Spidey actually managed a hit on the trained soldier, and it only took Lightning a minute to realize that he had actually hit a nerve cluster on her arm, and if it were not for her own training and slightly higher tolerance to pain and injury, she was sure that she would likely not be able to use that arm for a while afterwards.
Realizing what had just happened probably should have pissed Lightning off a little, but in truth, she found herself actually feeling a little more excited, which showed in the way she smirked at Spider-Man after they had paused for a moment to catch their breath. Spidey honestly found himself smirking a little as well, because it had actually been a while since he last fought against someone this seriously aside from the heroes who had helped him develop his fighting style into something of an actual martial art form. A second later, the two had charged again, and were soon exchanging blows left and right, neither of them giving the other any ground for longer than a second or so, and both of them making sure to leave little to no openings for their opponent. Both of them had faced a variety of foes who were stronger and more powerful than them, and the only thing that was actually acting as a deciding factor in their favor was their individual skill sets. Lightning was a well-trained soldier, prepared to take on a variety of different threats, she did not have any qualms about taking out her enemies permanently if necessary, and she was also much more agile, faster, and flexible than Spidey. On the other side of things, Spidey was a well-seasoned crime-fighter with ten years of experience, including the time he had spent working with and sometimes even training with other heroes like the Avengers or his friends Wolverine and Shang-Chi, and he also had his spider-powers to give him more of an edge on Lightning.
Out of everything in each of their current arsenals though, Spidey had one thing that Lightning did not have very much of in abundance, as far as he knew; it was a skill that he had often been told was his greatest asset outside of his ability to never shut up, and it had gotten him out of many different jams time and again: his ability to always be unpredictable. When they got to a point where Lightning was about to back him into a corner, he let this ability shine as he ducked under the kick that she threw at him. Using the momentum of his dodge, he slid under Lightning and behind her, and said, "You know, I don't think I ever realized until now that you actually have a very nice butt."
"W-what," Lightning stuttered, her face starting to light up with a dusting of pink once again, and her surprise caused her to drop her guard long enough for Spidey to take advantage of the distraction, and tackle her to the ground. The two then rolled across the floor until Lightning soon found herself firmly pinned beneath the web-head, who had removed his mask just enough for her to see the wide smirk on his face.
"As my buddy Quicksilver would often say, you didn't see that coming," Spider-Man quipped, his smirk not faltering for even a second.
Lightning scowled in response to this, but on the inside she was actually very impressed. She knew that Spider-Man was powerful, and she had suspected that he possessed some skill, but she was not expecting it to be to the degree that was just displayed to her. Still, she was not about to let him win so easily, especially when he had used such a sneaky trick to get her pinned down. "So what now? Is this part where you decide to have your way with me, or do you expect me to start begging you to take me," Lightning asked.
That threw Spidey for a loop, since he was not expecting that, and Lightning knew that he would not have, so the minute his grip had relaxed enough, she immediately spun them around so that she was now on top of him, holding him down on the ground. "Copycat," Spidey playfully accused.
"You're the one who opened that door, so you should've seen that coming," Lightning remarked just as easily, throwing Spider-Man's words back at him.
"Well, I guess this just proves that you prefer to be the dominant one in your relationships, doesn't it," Spidey replied, expecting her to be thrown off once again.
Unfortunately, Lightning Farron was not so easily fooled, especially not when the same trick was used twice in a row like this, and she intended to make that clear to the web-head. "Maybe I do. Got a problem with that," Lightning murmured as she slowly moved closer to the pinned spider-hero.
"Heh, you wish. Trust me, you have no idea how many women I've met in my life who would be viewed as powerful in one way or the other," Peter stated, not missing a beat. There was no way he was going to lose a war of quip pro quo to anyone, especially someone who was supposed to be as serious as Lightning normally seemed to be.
"Oh really? And where would I rank on that list," Lightning questioned, now so close that she was completely pressed up against Peter, and she was sure he could feel it through that very tight costume of his, seeing as she felt his arm muscles tense just a little bit under her palms.
Spidey did not have an immediate response for that, given that he could feel Lightning's chest pressed up against him, but he did manage to stutter one out nonetheless. "Uh, I'd have to say at least…top five, at least…and quickly rising."
"Only the top five, huh? Guess I have a little work to do before I'm at the top," Lightning noted, barely even noticing that she was now close enough to feel Peter's breath on her skin.
Peter did not say anything this time, as he was all too well aware of how close they were to one another, and all it would take at this point was the smallest of moves and he would be kissing the woman in front of him, which would either lead to her kissing him back, or her wanting to kill him in the most brutal of ways imaginable, and Spidey had a very vivid imagination when it came to what people like Lightning could do to men like him when they were pissed off enough. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on who you ask, Lightning's comm. device suddenly went off, startling them both out of the moment, and prompting Lightning to jump off of Peter as fast as her namesake before she answered it, while making sure her back was facing Spider-Man the whole time as she did. She barely even noticed how Peter was quickly scrambling back to his feet and sliding his mask back over his face completely as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the call, and eventually gave a quick confirmation that she understood what they were saying before ending the call.
"I've uh…I've got to head out on my regular patrol, so I guess…we're done for now, so…" Lightning reported to Peter, not entirely sure why she was acting like a nervous school girl at the moment.
"Yeah, I guess I'll just stick around for a bit and take care of the…things that I need to deal with…and uh," Peter immediately nodded as he moved to collect his web shooters.
"Right, right. I'll…show you where my office is so you can…do that stuff," Lightning said.
"That would be great. Thanks," Spidey quickly said, and from that point on, the two were completely silent as they gathered up the items that they had previously removed from their persons for their spar and then left so that Lightning could show Peter to her office.
A very awkward silence permeated the hallway as they walked, until it got to the point of being too uncomfortable for the both of them, and Lightning decided to try and break it. "So…you seemed pretty fast, probably faster than I saw you move before then. And your fighting style is definitely interesting. I can't say that I recognize it though."
"Oh, yeah I'd be a little surprised if you did," Spidey said, eternally thankful for the subject to end the awkwardness. "You see, it's something of a personal fighting style that I developed with a little help from a couple of friends of mine back home, and it basically utilizes all of my spider-powers to their fullest extent, while also adding in the aspects and precision of a few different fighting techniques that I picked up from fighting alongside of or training with my fellow heroes and friends. I call it the Way of the Spider, or Spider-Fu."
Lightning just hummed in response to this, but gave no other verbal response to show that she was somewhat impressed. Most of the time when someone tries to create their own fighting style, it is not very impressive to say the least, just them trying to mimic things they've seen others do in movies or in real-life, or a more fast-paced version of brawling that masquerades as martial arts, but Spidey seemed to have really done exactly that with this Way of the Spider. If it was just a different variety of brawling, then he would not have been able to strike a nerve cluster in the way that he had, and the fact that it seemed to utilize all of his abilities as a fighter was also quite the added bonus. There was also one other thing that she had picked up on as a result of their spar. "I think I can see why you wear a suit like that now instead of something that offers a little more protection, too," she commented. "It helps with your speed, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but this suit is actually a little more padded and tougher than you'd think," Spidey shrugged in admittance. "My old one was pretty much multi-colored spandex with a web theme to it, but this one actually does offer a small amount of protection from certain hits and attacks. It's not entirely bullet proof or anything that tough, but if I ever do get hit by a gunshot, it won't get through enough to cause a serious injury to me other than the obvious aches and pains. I mean, I have actually worn a couple suits of armor once, but the benefits did not quite outweigh the downsides of taking away a bit from my speed and agility so I didn't stick with either suit for long, especially since I only used the first one during a time when my Spider-Sense was not really working."
"Your what," Lightning asked, not expecting that.
"I…I have a sixth sense that warns me of danger and…stuff," Spider-Man hesitantly explained as best as he could. "I named it my Spider-Sense when I was a kid. One of these days I'll probably think of something cooler to call it, but until then…"
"Huh. That does explain how it seems like you can dodge attacks when you don't even see them coming most of the time," Lightning mused.
"Yeah," Spidey nodded. He did not want to say anything about how so far his Spider-Sense had not gone off around Lightning even once since meeting her, but mostly because he was worried she might find a way to take advantage of that later on in some way.
Neither of them said anything more after that, and continued on to Lightning's office in comfortable silence so that Peter could use the computer there to set himself up with a new identity for his stay in Cocoon, the memory of the scene from earlier almost completely forgotten. That did not mean that they were not both wondering about the overlying question that had been racing through their minds since they had jumped apart from each other after said incident. 'What the hell was that, and why did it happen?'
The rest of that day passed in a bit of a blur for Peter, though that may have had a great deal to do with the fact that he had a hard time shaking the incident with Lightning from his mind most of the time. He did not know what to think about what had almost happened there; was she about to try and kiss him, was he about to kiss her, or was it all just some kind of crazy scheme that Lightning had cooked up to try and throw him off in their spar that went a little too far? More to the point, why was it that he let it get that far in the first place instead of stopping it before then? He would not deny that Lightning was a very beautiful woman, you would have had to be blind to not see that, but he had just met her barely two days ago, so he should not be having any kind of feelings like that for her, right? Then again, it was hard to deny that he did feel something in that moment that he had not felt in a long time, and the last time he had felt that way was with Gwen, so it could not be that farfetched, right?
The more he thought about it, the more those kind of questions raced through his mind, and he did not need them doing so because he had more important things to worry about, and that was a bit part of the reason why he took so long to fully create his new Cocoon-based identity after Lightning had shown him to her office. Sure, it probably would have taken most of the day anyways, but it took much longer because of the fact that his mind was distracted by thoughts of that incident. In the end, he was able to get it all done, and Peter Parker now had everything that was needed for him to exist on Cocoon, at least as far as all the necessary papers and certificates go. When he had finished all of that, he did not go right back to the Farron household, but instead tracked down a lab in the base that was equipped with everything he needed to restock his supply of web fluid. He had not really had much of a chance to make more since arriving in this world, and while he did have a reasonable supply of extra cartridges in his belt, that was no excuse to not make absolutely sure that he would not run out any time soon. The web-head could still remember quite a few times when he had nearly died due to the fact that he had not made sure to keep up his supply of web fluid.
Finding the lab was simple enough, especially after he had asked Amador to help him out, and after getting permission from the lieutenant, along with a few hours of the typical work that was necessary to mix the necessary chemicals that were used to create his trusted webs, Spider-Man now had a full supply of webbing at his disposal. He did not stop there though, as he saw a chance to make some improvements to his webs and web shooters that he had thought up in the past but never been able to create due to a variety of reasons, the main one being that most were a little out of his budget range, along with some upgrades to some of his other tech, like his Spider-Tracers. He knew that this was probably taking advantage of the lieutenant's generosity of letting him use this lab, but the man did say to use it for as long as he needed and that he was welcome to their facilities anytime that he needed them, so who was he to refuse an offer like that? That was what ended up keeping him there so late into the night, and what ended up leading him to be the last one back to the Farron residence that night. He may not have been able to make all the upgrades he had been hoping to make, but it was just enough to be satisfactory for him at the moment. It was not like he was going to be swinging into some kind of crazy warzone or conspiracy plot at anytime in the near future, right?
Now, one could say that his coming back so late had something to do with the awkwardness that had seemed to have formed between him and Lightning after the little incident in the training area (and by "one" he meant Serah and Snow, assuming either of them ever found out), but Peter would be the first to argue that it had absolutely nothing to do with that whatsoever. That did not mean that breakfast the next morning did not feel a little awkward between him and Lightning, something that Serah seemed to pick up on when she joined them for breakfast, but it was not to the point where they were unable to at least have a pleasant, civil conversation with one another. Still, it seemed that neither one of the two could have left for their daily plans any faster after breakfast, but Peter soon found himself back at the Farron home not more than a few hours later, and dropping down onto the couch with a tired sigh.
"You sound like you've just run about a dozen marathons," Serah observed when she heard Peter come in.
The Queens-born hero jumped a little at the younger Farron sister's voice, having not realized she was there until she had spoken, but immediately calmed down a bit after seeing her looking at him with a sympathetic smile that said she was hoping to do what she could to help. "Oh, hey Serah. Didn't see you there," Peter greeted. "Wait, shouldn't you be out with Snow or something?"
"I actually just finished my studies for the day, and I'm waiting for Snow to come and pick me up so we can hit the mall later," Serah revealed. "But until then, I've got plenty of time to hear about what's got you so down in the dumps."
There was no denying it; Serah Farron was good. She had managed to take Peter's attempt at changing the subject and turn it right back around on him. Thinking he might as well indulge her a little, Peter just sighed and sat himself up a little straighter to regale her with the tale of his current woes. "Just not having any luck with landing a new job," Peter admitted. "I've been going around to every place with a help wanted sign and then some, and I've had absolutely no luck landing anything, not even a bagboy job at a grocery store. And I thought it was tough getting a job back home."
"Well, you never know. Maybe the job will find you instead," Serah encouraged. Clearly it did not seem to help much, so she decided to try a different tactic. "You know, I met someone last night who had gotten herself a little scrape doing something, and she seemed to be having a few troubles of her own. It didn't take long for me to help her patch up her scrape, and the two of us soon found ourselves sitting on the beach enjoying the sunset in peaceful silence until she decided to open up a little about what was bothering her."
"Are you sure it's okay to tell me something like this? I mean, I doubt your new friend would want you spilling her secrets to other people," Peter said.
"Don't worry. I'm sure she wouldn't mind," Serah shrugged. "It turned out, she was chasing after someone because she really had to apologize for something, but she couldn't figure out what to say. She even had a few nightmares about it."
"I kinda know how that feels," Peter muttered to himself, having some experience with wanting to apologize for something that had happened but not knowing what to really say. Of course, most of the time that was due to the fact that it would have exposed him as Spider-Man, but that was beside the point.
"So, I told her that if it was too much to deal with, she should just face it later," Serah continued, likely not hearing Peter's comment. "Sometimes things seem easier when you look at them from a distance, you know?"
"Yeah. I've got a pretty good idea about that," Peter nodded in understanding. He then smiled a bit at Serah and added, "Thanks Serah. I really needed that."
"Glad I could help, Peter. Don't worry; from what I've seen, anyone would be lucky to have you working with or for them. You'll land a new job in no time. If you want, I'm sure Snow and I could even talk to Lebreau and see if she would be willing to hire you for work at her restaurant."
"Thanks, I'll take any help I can get," Peter nodded. "Especially given what I've been doing as a substitute for any official work at the moment."
"And what would that be," Serah asked, now feeling a bit intrigued.
"Take a look," Peter said as he pulled some photos out of the bag he had acquired the other day when he was out at the mall with Snow and Serah.
After accepting the pictures, Serah's eyes widened a little in awe at what she saw. Every picture that met her eyes was of Spider-Man in action, and it looked like they were all taken at pretty incredible angles too, the kind that almost made Serah think that Peter had been sitting on a fire escape or something when he took them. "Wow, Pete, these are amazing. You made these yourself," Serah gasped in wonder as she continued to flip through the pictures.
"Yep. Photography has always been something of a natural skill for me, and I used to take pictures of my hometown's resident Spider-Man, so I figured I'd try my luck and snap a few pics of this one to see where it led me," Peter admitted. "The pictures are pretty good, but I'm still having a bit of trouble finding someone willing to buy them."
"Well hey, maybe if you found Spider-Man and got him to sign some of these, I'd be willing to buy a couple, and I'm sure that some of Snow's friends would want to buy a few as well, with or without an autograph," Serah suggested as she handed the photos back to him.
"I'll keep that in mind," Peter chuckled upon accepting said pictures, while mentally noting to make some copies of the pictures that he could autograph later and sell to the friends of Snow's that Serah had mentioned. He would probably just give Serah one for free since he did not feel right thinking about making her pay for one after all that she and Lightning were doing for him. Once he had safely returned the pictures to his bag, he looked back to Serah and asked, "So, what's on the agenda for you and Snow today, anyways, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Not at all," Serah replied with a smile. "We were actually going to head to the mall so I could find a birthday present for Lightning."
"Wait, Lightning's birthday is coming up," Peter gasped in surprise.
"Yeah, a couple of days from now, actually," Serah revealed. "Didn't you know?"
"Uh, Serah, this is the first I've heard of it, because when was ever a time when it would have come up even in passing," Peter pointed out.
Serah nodded in concession of this point and then hummed to herself in thought before a light bulb went off in her head. "Hey, why don't you come with me and Snow so you can find something for her, too," Serah offered.
"What?! Oh, no, I…I don't think that'll be necessary," Peter stuttered in response.
"Come on, Pete. You're probably the first person I've ever seen Lightning make friends with so easily outside of work. I mean, sure, she's got me, but I'm not always going to be around, and she knows it. I think it would be nice if you got her something as a way of showing that she does have someone else in her life that's going to be there for her, especially if it was something that comes from your heart," Serah insisted, her smile turning a little teasing towards the end.
"You make it sound like I'm going to be shopping to buy the perfect present for my girlfriend or something," Peter remarked. After a couple of seconds, he realized how what he said may have sounded, and quickly added, "Not…not that there's anything wrong with that. I-it's just that, Lightning and I don't have that kind of relationship, you know, so…"
"I never said that you did, Peter," Serah sang, with a knowing look on her face.
"Okay, wipe that smirk off your face, you know full well that you didn't have to," Peter ordered.
"If you say so, but still, I think it would be good for you to get Lightning a nice birthday present, so, you're coming with me and Snow so you can look for one while helping us find one for me to get her," Serah said, making it quite clear that Peter did not have much choice in the matter.
"You do remember that I don't have any money at the moment, right," Peter asked.
"I'm sure Snow won't mind helping you out a bit," Serah shrugged, and before Peter could argue any further, the sound of someone knocking at the door reached their ears, and they both knew immediately who it was. Serah immediately turned to answer the door, but before she left the room, she looked back once again to throw Peter a smile and said, "Just so you know, I fully approve of you and my sister dating."
"I…she…we…y-you…" Peter stuttered in an attempt to retort, but in the end, he could only sigh in defeat as Serah answered the door, filled Snow in on her invitation to Peter, and then helped the larger man drag Peter out of the house and to his airbike so that they could get to the mall and find birthday gifts for Lightning, with Peter feeling like this was going to be next to impossible for him to accomplish.
"I was wrong. This is not next to impossible; it is impossible," Peter groaned after finding yet another item that was either too pricy for his liking or just did not seem like something that would be suitable to give to Lightning as a birthday present.
"Ah come on, Pete. I'm sure you'll find something to get for Light before the day is done," Snow encouraged with a pat on the smaller man's back.
"Easy for you to say. You're putting your name on Serah's gift," Peter retorted.
Snow just smiled in response to this, making no attempt to deny this fact at all. The two men had actually split off from Serah a little while earlier when Snow suddenly said that he had spotted something he needed to pick up for one of his friends, and Serah just set to looking through a selection of items from another store in their absence. Oddly enough, Snow had actually brought Peter to a jewelry store for some reason, and Peter was sure that the larger man was trying to get him to get a necklace or something for Lightning just so that he and Serah could have an excuse to further tease him about possibly having feelings for the older Farron sister. Not that Peter had not considered it, but even if Snow was going to help him out with paying for a gift, Peter did not want to bankrupt the guy. Besides, from what he could see, it looked like Snow was more interested in something else in the shop at the moment.
After another two seconds or so of watching Snow look around for something that was unknown to Peter, the big man's face lit up with a smile as he found what he was looking for and quickly asked the lady behind the counter for the item in question. After being handed the items and paying for them, Snow held his purchase up so that he could better examine it, allowing Peter to see what it was. The items in question were two necklaces with identical pendants, and the pendants in question looked like an orb with a ring resting on top of it, while a pointed extension with a spiral around it hung from the bottom of the orb. It may have seemed a bit simplistic to the average person, but Peter could tell that those necklaces were very special, and likely very expensive.
"Wow, I don't know much about jewelry, but I'm pretty sure that those just cost you quite the pretty penny dude," Peter commented.
"It'll be worth it," Snow insisted as he pocketed the necklaces. The larger man then glanced over his shoulder like he was trying to make sure that no one was around to hear, and then motioned for Peter to move closer, and whispered, "Listen, Gadot, Lebreau, Maqui, and Yuj all already know about this, but I'm telling you because you actually saw me buy the necklaces. Before I tell you anything though, I need you to promise that you won't say anything to Serah or Lightning."
"Uh…okay," Peter nodded, suddenly feeling a bit nervous about where Snow was going with this.
After taking a minute to take a deep breath, Snow finally revealed, "I'm going to ask Serah to marry me, and those necklaces you just saw are going to be our engagement necklaces."
That was not on the list of things that Peter was expecting Snow to tell him, and he was pretty sure that his eyes had bulged out of their sockets in surprise when he heard that. He was so surprised by the revelation that he nearly blurted out what Snow had just told him in surprise, but thankfully, Snow managed to shush him before he got any further than the first to words. "You're going to ask Serah to marry you," Peter then asked in a much quieter and subdued voice. "I'm sorry, but I can't help but feel like I have to ask, isn't she a lot younger than you?"
"Uh she's eighteen, and I'm twenty one; last I checked there's only a three year difference between us, and that means that there's no problem with us getting married," Snow said. "I know it may seem like there's more of a gap given how large I appear to be when I stand next to her, but that's the honest truth about it. Besides, even if that wasn't the case, I'd be willing to wait until she was old enough to marry me. She and I…we've come too far to quit now, and she means everything to me."
There was nothing Peter could say to that, and really, after hearing how committed Snow was to marrying Serah, along with the passion in his voice, why would he say anything that would be in argument of the man's decision? From what he had seen of those two when they were together, they were clearly in love with each other and had eyes for no one else. Sure, Lightning would probably not be too fond of the idea of her sister getting married at such a young age, heck, Peter was not too fond of that himself, but if Snow and Serah really cared for each other that much and had been together for that long, then maybe they would be able to convince her to give her blessings eventually. It probably would not be easy, sure, but Peter had a strong hunch that Snow and Serah would be able to do it. Still, something about this seemed a little off to Peter. Snow struck him as the kind of guy who would not just jump into something that important so quickly, so there had to be some reason as to why beyond how strongly he felt about Serah. Whatever that reason was though, ultimately it was none of Peter's business, so he let it be for now.
"Well, I guess all I can do is wish you luck, big guy," Peter finally said after another minute of thinking or so.
"Thanks, but I'm not sure how much luck I'll need. I'm sure that she'll say yes," Snow replied, hoping that he would effectively mask his nervousness on the matter by a show of confidence.
"Who said anything about that? From what I've seen, it'd be crazy to think she would say anything but yes to you. I was wishing you luck for when Lightning finds out," Peter corrected with a smile.
Snow could not help but laugh at first, but his face quickly paled when he realized what Peter had said. He quickly shook himself out of it though, because he knew that he was going to face that particular battle sooner or later anyway, especially since this would make Lightning his new sister, so he would just have to make sure he found a way to prove to her that he was more than capable of doing everything he could for Serah. After he had shaken out his fears of what would happen when Lightning found out about this, Snow looked to his current companion and asked, "Say Pete, have you got any advice on how I should propose? I mean, I've got a couple of ideas in mind, but I could always go for a second opinion."
"What makes you think I would have some ideas," Peter asked.
"Well…I don't know. I guess I just want to hear some ideas from someone other than the guys, since I'm the gonna be the first one in NORA to actually propose, you know. Plus, it's not like you've ever said you haven't at least thought about proposing to a girl at one point or another," Snow admitted.
Peter had to give Snow that, and after thinking it over for a minute, he figured he might as well give the man a little help. "Alright, how about you start by telling me what you have in mind?"
"Well, I was going to propose to her on the beach tomorrow night during the fireworks festival," Snow said.
"Okay, yeah that's a good idea," Peter admitted. "But you can't just do it at some random location. You've gotta make it very special for Serah. Yes, proposing under fireworks is good, very romantic, but it would probably be a little better if you did it somewhere very special to the both of you, like a favorite hangout or something."
Snow nodded in understanding of this, and said, "Got it. I think I might know just the place, too. Anything else?"
"Just a few quick words of wisdom that I learned from my aunt when I first told her I was planning to propose to Gwen a few years back," Peter said. "She told me that a man has to put his wife before himself. I know that you care about Serah, but you have to really ask yourself if you can really do that before you pop the question."
"You don't have to worry about that. I plan to make sure that she's always happy, no matter what," Snow promised.
"Well, keep that in mind for when Lightning finds out. Maybe that will convince her you're the right guy for her little sister," Peter advised. The two exchanged a quick nod and then returned their attention to the other matter that had brought them there, until Peter thought of something else. "One other thing: when you propose to her, I'd give a small speech or something that doesn't just let her know the full depths of your feelings for her, but makes them give even more of a show than those fireworks. Maybe say something like how she's your one and only, or something else along those lines."
Snow nodded in response to that and thanked Peter for the advice once again before they returned their attention to their previous task of helping Peter find a birthday gift for Lightning, and just in time too, because it was at that moment that Serah finally reappeared before them, her smile and the package under her arm indicating that she had found the perfect gift for her older sister. After looking through the various items for another couple of minutes, Peter finally spotted something that caught his eye, and after looking at it for another minute, an idea popped into his head just as quickly. After waving over a jeweler, Peter asked, "Excuse me, do you do custom orders, and if so, how quickly can you get them done?"
As it turned out, the custom order Peter had requested ended up only taking one day, much to his relief, and after getting a good word in from Snow and Serah, the price ended up being quite reasonable, considering how nice the item Peter had decided to purchase was going to be. Even so, Peter was just glad that he had managed to find a gift for Lightning, but he would not say what it was. No matter how much Snow and Serah pestered him about it, he just kept saying that they would find out when Lightning did on her birthday, and that was if she decided to show it off for the world to see.
After he had picked up the custom order the next day, Peter found himself enjoying the fireworks festival that Snow had mentioned, and at one point, he overheard someone mention to their friend that the spectacle before them was supposed to be made up of wishing fireworks, an odd thing to be certain, but a rather entertaining one at the same time if you were to ask Peter. With that new knowledge in mind, Peter found he could not help but make a little wish of his own on the fireworks. Part of said wish was that Lightning would like the gift and not kill him, while the other part was that he would eventually find a way back home, if possible soon. It was not that he did not enjoy his new life in Bodhum, but he did still have his aunt back home waiting for him, and who knew how long he had been gone from New York now? He knew that it had only been a few days since he had arrived on Cocoon, but he also knew from his past experiences with alternate dimensions and other planets that a few days could likely have been a few months back in his own universe.
Right at the moment though, he was not concerned, for it was now the morning of Lightning's birthday, and he found himself up bright and early despite how late it had been when he finally came back from the festival. What he had not expected, yet was not surprised to discover was that Lightning was also up just as earlier despite the fact that she had told both him and Serah last night that she was taking some time off starting today. This news really seemed to have brightened Serah's day, but if the fact that she was wearing the engagement necklace that Snow had bought for her the previous day was any indication to Peter, it was more like it was just the most recent in a long list of great things that had happened to Serah yesterday. He did not say anything about that to Lightning though, since that was Serah's news to tell when she was ready; Peter just had to hope that Lightning would take the news well.
That was neither here nor there at the moment, because Peter Parker had a mission of his own to complete right now, and it started with him greeting the woman who had opened up her home to him the first night he had landed in Cocoon. "Good morning Lightning, and happy birthday," Peter greeted as cheerily as one could after they had just woken up.
Hearing his greeting drove Lightning's attention away from what she had been doing and onto him, surprise written clearly across her face when she asked, "How did you know it was my birthday today?"
"Serah told me," Peter replied as simply as you please. He then brought the wrapped package that contained his present for her out from behind his back and added, "I um…got you a little something, and before you say that I didn't have to or anything like that, I just want you to know, that I actually did want to, both to say happy birthday and to say thanks for…well, everything you've done to help me out up until now."
Lightning was stunned. She had honestly not expected Peter to get her a birthday gift, and thus, she could only wordlessly accept said gift before she started to slowly unwrap it. When she finally opened the package, she had to gasp a little at what was inside. There, sitting snuggly in the box, was a necklace with a beautiful pendant that was in the shape of a lightning bolt, and from what she could see, it looked as though the pendant had been made with some sort of special material or something, because it seemed to glow with a mixture of red and blue colors. To think that Peter had gotten her something like this was all it took to leave Lightning breathless for a minute until she looked at Peter and said, "It's…very nice, Peter. Thank you."
Peter smiled in response, knowing that Lightning was one of those people who would sometimes have a hard time really expressing how they felt, and why she was like that, but what he did not expect was for her to turn around and pull her hair aside as she held the necklace out to him. "Mind helping me to put it on," the rose-haired woman asked.
"Not at all," Peter said as he took the necklace in his hands and securely fastened it around Lightning's neck, doing his best to ignore how his heartbeat seemed to speed up a little at the close proximity between them.
Lightning was glad that Peter could not see her face at the moment, because while he was placing the necklace on her, she could feel her face heating up a little in response, indicating that she was more than likely blushing at least a little bit. Hoping to distract herself from such thoughts, Lightning quickly asked, "How did you manage to get this?"
"Serah and Snow helped me out a little bit. Mostly Snow though," Peter admitted. "Of course, the pendant is a special custom order that I thought of on my own."
"Any particular reason for that," Lightning inquired.
"Let's just say that so long as you're wearing this necklace, you'll always have a friend that'll be there to come running to help you, even when it seems like you don't really need it for anything other than just someone to talk to," Peter replied cryptically. That left Lightning a little frustrated, he could tell, but he was not going to stop there. "I'm really serious about this, Lightning. I consider you a good friend, despite the fact we've only known each other a few days, and if you ever need anything, you can come to me. Okay?"
Lightning was not expecting that, and immediately turned to face him again, only to find a very serious look on Peter's face, with his eyes burning with nothing but honesty and determination to follow through on that promise of his. Staring into those chocolate orbs of Peter's, Lightning could not help but feel a warm, comforting sensation overwhelm her, making her feel as though she would be safe so long as she believed in what he just said, and upon acting on instinct, Lightning slowly moved forward and wrapped her arms around Peter in a small hug as she whispered into his shoulder, "Okay, and thank you, Peter. I appreciate that."
Peter smiled in response and returned her hug happily, as he said, "Hey, what're friends for, Rose?"
"Keep guessing," Lightning muttered into his shoulder, only this time, Peter could have sworn there was a bit of teasing in her tone.
The little moment was quickly broken though when someone else made their presence known to them, saying, "Aww, that's so sweet!"
"SERAH," exclaimed both the New York hero and the Guardian Corp soldier as they jumped apart and then turned to see the young woman in question smiling widely at them.
"Don't stop on my account. By all means, continue with what you were doing," Serah teased the two.
"We weren't…we were just…nothing happened," Peter stuttered. "I mean, something did happen, b-but not what you're thinking!"
"I-it was just a friendly hug so that I could say thanks for his present," Lightning quickly added before Peter could put his foot any further into his mouth for them.
"Oh yeah! What did he get you, Lightning? He wouldn't tell me or Snow what it was," Serah asked.
After that, Lightning just silently showed Serah the necklace Peter gave her, and the two had to deal with Serah saying how beautiful it was and then teasing them both about how it showed just how much they cared about each other for what felt like hours, until she finally said that she would be cooking up a big birthday feast for Lightning in a couple of hours and that Snow would be coming over to join them, much to Lightning's irritation. When Serah added at the end that she had something really important that she wanted to tell them after Snow came, Peter thought he would only be a little worried, since it would likely be their announcing their engagement to Lightning, but somehow, he had a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that it was going to be something else.
'Spider-Sense, why can't you ever warn me about things like this,' Peter mentally groaned as he looked on at the catastrophe that was just begging to be let loose. After the little moment between him and Lightning earlier that day, things progressed rather smoothly for everyone, even after Snow showed up, surprisingly. If you were to look in on the peaceful scene that had been unfolding, you would almost think that it was very close to a peaceful utopia, or at least as close to one as you could get when Lightning was in the same room as Snow. After a very delicious meal though (which was cooked by Serah, and had left Peter thinking that the girl could probably give his Aunt May's cooking a run for its money), things had started going downhill.
It had started off with Serah and Snow announcing their engagement, and while Peter may have been excited for them, he found that he had to keep his congratulations as subdued as possible when he started to feel a very dangerous aura start coming off of Lightning at the news. Apparently, Serah and Snow felt it too, because they both became much more nervous about their chances of getting Lightning's blessings. In the end, Lightning somehow managed to keep a cool head on the matter and did not express any ill-will towards the idea, but she also did not hide that she knew there was more to what they wanted to tell them than that. Of course, it was obvious that Serah was going to tell Lightning something else based on how nervous she seemed to be, at least from where Peter was standing, but after seeing her sister's reaction to the news that she was now engaged to Snow, Serah was much more nervous than before. It took a reassuring pat on the shoulder from her new fiancé to help her gather the courage to reveal the big secret that she wanted to share, but when she did, Peter was left confused both by the secret itself, and by Lightning's initial reaction at the sight of it.
After some hesitance on her part, Serah removed the bandage that she had been wearing on her left bicep and slowly turned her arm towards Lightning so that she could get a good look at it, and when she did, Lightning left out a soft, nearly inaudible gasp of shock when she saw a very strange mark on her sister's arm. From Peter's viewpoint, it seemed like a tattoo that was made of an overlapping sequence of black arrows, with one large pair of arrows going through the center with the points positioned at the top and bottom of the rectangle that the others had formed, but given how downtrodden Serah and Snow appeared to be and how shocked Lightning was at the sight of this "tattoo", it was clear that it was something else. After she finally felt that Lightning had gotten a good look at the mark, Serah finally revealed that she had been made into a Pulse l'Cie, confirming that it meant more than what Peter knew, but still not giving him a full answer as to what it really meant. Then again, he did not really need a full answer to know that this new revelation was about to cause a major eruption that would likely tear the two sisters apart.
It was times like this that Peter really hated it when he was right, because after she had sat down to let it all sink in, Lightning had leveled both her sister and Snow a very harsh glare and said something that Peter knew she would not likely be able to take back anytime soon, if ever. "You became a l'Cie, so now you're going to marry this idiot? And you think I'm going to buy that," Lightning snapped in full sarcasm, drawing Serah's gaze to the floor in sadness. Sadly, Lightning was not stopping there. "Full points for originality, but don't forget if you really are a l'Cie…it's my job to deal with you."
"Sis," Serah gasped in horror. She could hardly believe what she was hearing. Maybe it was her anger at finding out about her engagement to Snow talking, or maybe she was just saying this because she did not believe her, but whatever the case may be, it did not change the fact that Serah's sister had basically just said that if she really had become a l'Cie, Lightning would more than likely kill her, and that broke her heart.
"This is ridiculous," Lightning huffed as she turned away from the two with her arms crossed, clearly not wanting to hear anymore. "Worst birthday ever."
If what Lightning said a minute ago had not done the trick, then that last line certainly did, because a minute later, Serah was racing out of the room, and the house in tears. Snow and Peter both called after her in the hopes of getting her to wait, but the poor girl was too heartbroken to hear them, and was already gone before they could stop her. Seeing how hurt Serah was by the words and actions of her own sister did not sit well with Snow at all, and right then, he did not care what Lightning thought of him or what he would do in a moment, because he was not going to stand for what had just happened. "Why won't you believe her," Snow angrily demanded, while Peter started to panic a little at what was starting to unfold before him.
"You kidding me," Lightning asked as if it were obvious. "She gets made a l'Cie and you pop the question?"
"Lightning stop it," Snow shouted, slamming his hand on the table.
"No you stop it," Lightning shouted back, repeating Snow's actions as he did, but they were both silenced when the third person in the room slammed his own fist on the table and shouted over both of them.
"ENOUGH, BOTH OF YOU," Peter screamed. "You two can argue all you want about how great or terrible you two are or aren't in regards to Serah, and about how ridiculous her story may or may not be later, because in case you haven't noticed, Serah just ran out of the house in tears after what had just happened, and is somewhere out there all on her own without either of you to watch out for her!"
Both parties were silenced at that for two reasons. The first reason, and the more obvious one was that in the short time they had known him, they had never once thought Peter would be someone who could be easily angered, if at all, given how optimistic he seemed to be about his situation and how accepting he was in regards to his past. The other reason was because they knew he had a point. Right now was not the time to be fighting with each other, not with Serah running around out there in tears, all by herself, especially if she really had become a l'Cie, and yet here they were doing just that. Of course, Lightning found that she was unable to face Snow or Peter after a minute, because for her, there was a third reason, and that was the fact that Peter was facing her for a majority of his small rant. While he had not said it aloud, he was making it quite clear to her that he knew what she had said was responsible for Serah running out.
Apparently, Snow did not take Lightning's response to Peter's outburst too well, but before he could retort in anger, Peter leveled him with a look that made it clear he would be in trouble if he said something he should not, so he kept his mouth shut and waited for Peter to say something instead. "Snow, go after Serah. She needs you right now, especially given what had just happened," Peter calmly said. "After you've got her calmed down, bring her straight back here, and hopefully, we can pick this up with cooler heads. I'll talk to Lightning."
"…Okay," Snow nodded to Peter before he turned to go after his fiancé. Before he stepped out the door though, he turned back to Lightning so he could say one last thing. "Lightning, I promise you, no matter what happens, I will do it. I'll protect her, even if it costs me my life."
With his piece said, Snow stomped out of the house, and it was not until the sound of his large boots roughly hitting the ground had faded out completely that either Lightning or Peter said anything to one another, though with some hesitance. "Well…that could've gone better. Of course, it could've gone worse too, but it definitely could've been better," Peter sighed, tiredly.
"Shut up," Lightning huffed as she stomped over to the sink so she could start cleaning some of the dishes from their recent meal. She did not even get the water running before she paused in her task to level Peter a glare and said, "You knew about this all along, didn't you?"
"Hey, whoa! Don't try to turn this around on me, Lightning! Okay, yes I knew that Snow was going to propose to Serah, and that there was a strong likelihood she would say yes, but that whole…other thing, I did not know about," Peter immediately protested in his defense. "While we're on the subject though, what the heck even is a l'Cie? Seriously, I've heard people mention them twice now, and I've yet to receive an actual explanation on what they are."
Lightning stopped herself from giving a heated retort, and then moved to sit down again so that she could finally tell Peter about the topic. "A l'Cie is someone who has been branded by the fal'Cie and given great physical and magical power, all for the sole purpose of completing a Focus, or a special task, and they usually have to do so within a certain time limit. If they complete their Focus, then they turn to crystal, but if not, they're turned into monsters. Most people consider being made a l'Cie to be an honor, at least so long as it's for one of the Sanctum fal'Cie, but if someone is made into a l'Cie by a Pulse fal'Cie, then they are considered to be dangerous enemies of Cocoon. Another thing you should probably know is that once a person is made a l'Cie, they're no longer considered human, and there's no way to change a l'Cie back into a human."
While Peter did not understand all of what Lightning had just said, he did understand enough of it to get the meaning of what she was saying. "So they're like slaves to some things that consider themselves to be a higher power," he muttered to himself. "And since Serah said she was a Pulse l'Cie…"
"Don't tell me you actually bought all of that," Lightning scoffed in disbelief. "It's obvious that the whole thing was just some excuse to get me to agree to let Serah marry Snow."
"Are you even listening to yourself, Lightning," Peter asked in disbelief. "Didn't you see her face after what you said to her? Serah wasn't just hurt, she was heartbroken, because her own sister basically said that she would have no choice but to kill her, simply because her job told her to do so. More than that, you should know Serah better than anyone in the world, because she's your sister! Do you really think she would try to make something like that up just so you would give her your blessings to marry Snow?"
Lightning had no answer for that, because she knew Peter had a point. She did know Serah better than anyone, or at least better than most people, despite whatever distance had formed between them because of her work, and as such, she knew that Serah would never try to lie about something so serious for any reason, so why had she assumed she did? Well, the answer was pretty obvious: it was due in large part to her learning that Serah was now engaged to Snow, and Lightning was not all that fond of the tall, blonde leader of NORA, so maybe she was just looking for any excuse she could think of to lash out at him, feeling like he was trying to take Serah away from her.
Seeing how hurt Lightning was starting to look, Peter was quick to reassure her, "Look, Lightning, I'm not saying all this to be mean, or anything like that; I'm just trying to help you see reason before something happens between you and Serah that can't be undone. In a way, I kinda get how Serah likely felt telling you about the whole l'Cie thing, because what had just played out is one of the more bad scenarios of what I think would happen if I ever told my aunt that I was Spider-Man. The mere idea of telling your only family about a secret that big is terrifying, especially if there's a strong chance that they'll hate you for it, but she still told you. In a way, I kinda admire her for that, because that made her a lot braver than I've ever been. I just hope that this doesn't…"
"…I get it, Peter," Lightning finally sighed in defeat. "Maybe…I did overreact and shut her out when I should've tried to tell her that it would be okay. I was just so upset about the fact that she had agreed to marry Snow that I didn't want to listen or believe anything she was telling me. I'm a horrible sister, aren't I?"
"No, don't say that," Peter immediately argued, wrapping an arm around Lightning in comfort. "You're a very good sister, who's…very overprotective of her only younger sibling and is a real stubborn piece of work. You just needed a little help seeing the problem from another perspective."
Lightning's eyes narrowed a little when Peter called her a stubborn piece of work, but she was still able to get his meaning, and nodded a little into his shoulder as a sign of thanks for what he was saying. After another minute or so, she noticed that Serah had left her birthday gift on the table, and she immediately walked over to open it up to see what was inside, with Peter following after her to see as well. After unwrapping the box and opening the lid, Lightning was surprised to find that inside was actually a survival knife with a black handle and a slightly curved blade, but after a moment, it actually made sense that Serah would give her this. She knew that Serah was probably worried about her whenever she was on duty, so she figured that Serah had decided to give her this as her own way of making sure that Lightning was safe.
"How practical," Lightning mused to herself, now suddenly feeling much worse about how she had treated Serah just a moment ago.
Peter said nothing in response to this, feeling that Lightning was truly touched by the thought behind Serah's gift, but even if he wanted to say something, he was unable to since a sudden beeping from the television suddenly caught their attention. "We interrupt this program to bring you an urgent Sanctum bulletin," the announcer said. "Late last night, officials confirmed the presence of a Pulse fal'Cie inside the city of Bodhum. Acting with fal'Cie Eden's approval, authorities declared a state of emergency. The entire district will be quarantined in response to this crisis. This is a Sanctum bulletin…"
Lightning and Peter had both stopped listening after that point, but not just because the message was now repeating itself, but because of what the message had just unveiled, and because of what it had confirmed for Lightning without even the slightest doubt. Serah really had been telling the truth, and if the city was being put on lockdown, her sister was now in trouble, because of what Lightning had said to her. Lightning's worry must have shown on her face, because a minute later, she registered that Peter had changed out of his civilian attire and into his Spider-Man suit, sans mask, which allowed her to see his determined face. "Don't worry, Lightning. I'm going to head out and try to track down Serah and Snow, hopefully before anyone else does," Peter promised. "You just make sure you're ready to act for whatever happens afterwards."
"You do realize that if you get in the way of the Sanctum, you'll be branded a threat to all of Cocoon, right," Lightning asked.
"Well it wouldn't be the first time," Peter shrugged as he donned his mask, and a minute later, Spider-Man was swinging away from Lightning's house, with Lightning saying a silent prayer in the hopes that Spidey would make it before she started getting ready for the worst case scenario.
Spidey was really hoping that when he found Snow and Serah, they would be somewhere safe and well out of harm's way, but unfortunately, they were the farthest thing from both, because when he did find them, they were being chased by a number of soldiers, some of which were wearing what he knew to be armor of the Guardian Crop, but most of them were wearing the dark gold and brown colors of PSICOM. What made matters worse is that most of the PSICOM soldiers were actually shooting at the fleeing couple, even before Snow had pulled them both onto an airbike and taken to the skies, but after he had done so, the soldiers had switched to using both guns and rockets to try and bring them down. Seeing his friends in such serious danger was all the prompting that Spider-Man needed to get in on the action, and the first thing he did when doing so was pull away or web up as many of the weapons that the soldiers were using as possible before he landed before them.
"Sorry fellas, but I'm afraid the shooting range is on the other side of town, so I'm gonna have to take away or disable your guns until you give a proper apology for putting innocent civilians in danger," Spidey quipped as he crouched down before the soldiers.
"It's that spider guy from the news," one of the PSICOM soldiers shouted. "I knew he was too good to be true!"
"He must be a Pulse l'Cie that's helping those fugitives escape," another one added.
"Okay, first off, just so we can avoid further confusion, I'm not a l'Cie, Pulse or otherwise. I'm just your typical, run of the mill, metahuman, or to put it more simply, a Spider-Man," the web-head corrected. "Secondly, I'm not helping fugitives, I'm helping a couple of innocent people who are freaking out because you idiots are spending your sweet time shooting at them for no reason."
"Save it, freak! We have our orders to capture or kill any and all elements from Pulse, l'Cie or otherwise before they can pose a more serious threat to Cocoon," the lead soldier stated as he pulled out a new gun and aimed it at Spider-Man, with his comrades doing the same soon after. "Now either stand aside and surrender yourself, or we will shoot to kill."
"Yeah, good luck with that," Spider-Man shrugged in defeat before he leapt into the air once again and started dealing with the soldiers one by one. It started off with him disarming them once again, this time hoping that he had removed all weapons from their persons, and then he switched to a more up close confrontation by delivering a number of punches and kicks that made sure that the soldiers were down for the count, even if he did not web them up after knocking them out. A rather simple strategy for a simple fight, but Spider-Man did not have time for anything less than a quick and simple plan of attack, because Snow and Serah needed his help right now, especially when he saw that they were now being chased through the air by a pair of enemy aircrafts, which had wasted no time in firing on them once they were within range.
Spider-Man's eyes immediately narrowed behind his mask, and he was soon just webbing up the remaining soldiers so that he could hurry up and get to his friends, but since there were no tall buildings or structures in the area for him to swing from, he knew he would have to improvise, and he did so by shooting a pair of webs onto a pair of lamp posts, and then pulling them back as hard as he could. When he let the webs go taunt, he was instantly sent sling-shooting forward through the air until he finally managed to land on top of one of the attacking aircrafts. If the pilot registered his arrival, Spider-Man did not give him much time to try and shake him off, because he had managed to quickly swing around and jam up the ship's guns with his webs before he knocked out its engines with a few hard punches into the vehicle. Before the ship had started to fall too far out of the sky, Spider-Man leapt clear and used a web to pull himself over to the next ship, hoping that he could knock it out before Snow's bike was sent falling out of the sky.
Unfortunately, he never got the chance to try, because a second later, he heard Snow calling out to Serah, and he immediately looked up to see the man reaching out to someone that was on the platform high up on the structure he had come to learn was known as the Bodhum Vestige, until a sudden pulse of energy suddenly blasted him away. That same blast also blasted the airship Spidey was currently perched on top of out of the air, but at that moment, Spider-Man was more concerned about the blonde who was currently falling out of the sky on a damaged and out of control airbike. After jumping clear of the enemy airship, Spider-Man immediately did everything he could to reach Snow as fast as possible, until he had finally landed on top of the blonde's airbike, drawing Snow's attention to him as soon as he heard the web-head land.
"Hang on," Spider-Man shouted as he lifted Snow out of his seat and quickly tapped a couple of controls on his free web shooter before he jumped clear with the large man held firmly in his grasp. "Please work, please work, please work," Spider-Man then muttered to himself, hoping that Snow would not hear him with the wind rushing through his ears, and he then aimed the free web shooter above their heads and fired out a web-line that then expanded itself into a web-parachute that slowly ease his and Snow's descent down to the beach below them. "Phew. Well, I guess it's safe to say that at least that new upgrade works," Spidey commented to himself just before they both touched down on the sand. Spidey then helped steady Snow as the blonde fell onto one knee and asked, "Hey, you okay man?"
"No, I'm definitely not okay, Spider-Man. Serah's in there," Snow replied as he gazed up at the Vestige.
"Okay, and why is she in there," Spidey asked, prompting Snow to give more details.
"Because that's where the fal'Cie who made her into a l'Cie is. We figured that if we went there, the fal'Cie would tell us what Serah's Focus was, which help us convince Lightning that we were telling her the truth. Before I could jump onto the platform with her though, some kind of silver liquid dragged her inside and then the door snapped shut before it released that energy blast," Snow informed him.
Spidey may not agree with what Snow had planned to do, but he did see where he was coming from. If he and Serah could find anything that would help them prove that Serah was telling Lightning the truth, it would likely be something from the same thing that made the younger Farron a l'Cie in the first place. There was just one thing he did not get. "Why would you need the fal'Cie to tell you what Serah's Focus was?"
"…Because she said that she didn't know what her Focus was," Snow revealed. "Serah had no clue what her Focus was supposed to be, so she can't complete it without the fal'Cie telling her what it was."
Now everything made sense to Spider-Man, but that did not change what had happened here, or what they had to do now. "Alright, come on, Snow. Let's get you out of here before those soldiers drag you off to prison or worse. You won't be able to help your girlfriend at all if your locked up or dead," Spidey said as he lifted the man over his shoulders so that he could support him as they walked.
"Wait…how do you know my name," Snow asked, since he was pretty sure that he never told Spider-Man himself.
"Uh…that lieutenant from the other day called you that, so I just figured that was your name," Spider-Man quickly shrugged in reply.
Snow nodded in acceptance of that and let Spider-Man carry him back up to the main street until he was able to walk on his own, at which point he said, "By the way, Serah's not just my girlfriend, she's my bride. Or my bride-to-be, anyway, but if we want to have any chance of saving her, we're going to need tell Lightning and get her help. I just hope she won't be too mad at me to do anything."
"Oh, well congratulations," Spider-Man nodded, for which Snow thanked him, and the two were soon heading over to Lightning's house, both knowing that the minute she heard about this new development, she would be pissed. They just had to hope that she would not be pissed enough to kill them both before trying to do something completely insane all on her own.
AN: I'm gonna be totally honest, this chapter turned out to be longer than I had thought it would be, and this is with a few things taken out of it.
Lightning: Such as?
AN: Well, originally, I was going to have a scene where Spidey would save Serah and Vanille, but I figured that if I did that, then the only people left for him to meet would be Hope and Sazh. Well that, and there was also the fact that the day Spidey went to spar with Lightning took place on the very same day that Serah met Vanille, so that did not quite work out without me saying that Spider-Man would've rushed through all of the other things he wanted to do that day.
Another thing that did not quite make the cut was the fireworks festival on Day 11, in which we would've seen everything about what Spidey did that night, which would've included a brief chat with some of the NORA members, and an eventual encounter with Lightning and Amador, during which the latter would've assumed that the two were a couple or something along those lines.
Lightning: Speaking of which [aims gunblade at author] care to explain why you made me look like some little school girl after sharing some "moments" with Spider-Man?
AN: What? The main pairing for this story is you and Spider-Man, so obviously I've got to include some points that shows you two starting to have steadily growing feelings for each other. Now put that thing away, you know you need me to keep this story going. [waits until after Lightning has holstered her gunblade] Thank you. And also, before anyone asks, yes, I had Serah tease the two a little, because let's be honest, how often do you hear of a younger sibling who doesn't tease their older sibling about a relationship and feelings they may or may not have for a boy/girl?
Serah: Speaking of which, I kinda liked that little scene before Lightning's little birthday dinner and things went bad. You know, where Peter gave her that necklace.
AN: Ah yes, thank you for that reminder Serah. If you've seen Light's wiki page of the Final Fantasy Wiki, you'll know that it says that Lightning does in fact wear such a pendant, but what I can't help but notice whenever I've watched the cutscene movie is that you almost never see it even if you look for it. Aside from that, I thought it would be interesting to have Spidey give her said necklace both for that little sweet moment, and for another reason that you'll all learn about later on in the story. It won't be right away, but it will be revealed later.
Snow: You know what I'm glad to see had changed at least a little? What had happened after Lightning got upset with Serah and caused her to run out in tears. [flinches a little when he sees Lightning's gunblade in his face]
AN: [in bored tone] Light, you can't kill Snow. [Lightning holsters gunblade again] Yeah, Peter managed to talk some semblance of sense into everyone before things got to heated between Lightning and Snow, and yes, he will most likely be playing referee between those two for a long time to come, be it as Peter or as Spider-Man. And then of course, we added in our friendly neighborhood hero having a chat with Lightning to make her see reason behind Serah's story, and how hard it must've been for her both to tell her about the l'Cie thing and to hear Light had said afterwards, including that little comparison that he threw in, which is actually pretty accurate when you think about it.
Spider-Man: Real quick; is there any reason why you made it so that I wasn't able to help Snow save Serah before she was taken prisoner by Anima?
AN: Well if that didn't happen then Snow and Lightning wouldn't have had much of a reason to go down there. Well...maybe Snow since he and NORA ended up leading a resistance effort to save the people getting purged, but aside from that, Serah was the whole reason why those guys went down there and started fighting against PSICOM. You take away a big reason like that, and the story suddenly becomes much, much, much shorter. Far too short for my liking, and probably anyone else's really. Sorry, Serah.
Serah: No worries. I'm cool with it this time.
AN: Well, with that, we've covered the events of Days 7-12, and next chapter is the start of Day 13 and the main events of FFXIII! Hooray! We're getting to the good stuff! Don't believe me? Take a look as you move Onto the Preview!...
The Purge has begun, and Lightning uses it to her advantage to get to Serah, with a little extra help from both Spider-Man, and the father of the boy that Spidey had saved just the other day. Battles of resistance are now breaking out against PSICOM in the area known as the Hanging Edge, and our heroes are all caught up right in the middle of it all, as one fight leads to many different trials and tragedies, leaving them all wondering just what will they have to do in order to make it through in one piece. Find out just who will survive or not, and how far everyone will go to carry out their own missions, next time.
Please read and review, and swing on back for next time, fellow true believers!
