Disclaimer: I only own what is mine. My OCs and Ideas.
A/N: Went to go see Spider-Man: Homecoming! Wow! I never go like until it's been out for a month. But let me say 100/10! Wonderful. Loved it. And the final post-credit scene is worth the "Patience". Anyway, going to try to update this faster, at least faster than last time. So let's get a moving. And up next is White Tiger's big episode. So get ready! Enjoy!
Reviews:
ArtemisBAMF1218 - Danny is precious, he's in this chapter. If only for a little bit, and because, well Luke and Danny's comic book history goes way back, so I try to put them together.
I do plan to expand on the arc for Danny, don't want to give too much away right now, but I have some good stuff concerning his episode in the works. And I am really excited to start breaking down Ava's episode. I'll likely get started on that... maybe tomorrow.
Hm... maybe a small idea mentioning Luke... hmm... anyway, let's get on with this chapter! Enjoy!
Death Fury - Thank you! Enjoy the next chapter!
Chapter 4: Luke
Peter sat on the roof in his full costume, mask excluded as I got dressed. He needed to hurry up too. But watching J. Jonah Jameson complain about someone other than Spider-Man was too tempting to pass up from him.
"Is it just me? Or has JJJ moved on to a new target?" He finally spoke up.
He looked over at me and tossed his phone. "Catch."
I hold up my hands and easily catch the phone.
"But who is really to blame? The only menace seen in the blaze was the wall-crawling Spider-Man!"
"Yup, just you," I have to smile to myself throwing the phone back to him. "Hurry up and change."
Peter reached forward to catch his phone that I had tossed a little short.
"So what the heck was that thing?" I ask as I walk over to get my bag. "And what was in those chemical contains it snatched?"
"Probably no chance it was horn polish," Peter jokes pulling on his shirt.
"I said fork it over!"
"Leave me alone, Flash."
Great, it's not even the first tardy bell and this is starting.
"I thought you got Flash to drop the bully stuff a while ago?" I ask as we watch the scene unfold down below.
"Yeah, he did." Peter started slowly, clearing thinking back. "I mean, he did with me. Let's get down there."
"Yeah, before this gets any worse." I agree.
Peter walks over to the side of the roof where there is no one down below or around. We take a quick scan to make sure there is no one and jump down.
"Picking on a little guy?" Peter asks as he slows his pace, he had been in a pretty good hurry to catch up. "Not cool."
"How about I trade places with him and we see how this all plays out?" I suggest. It seems to catch him off guard. I'm fairly sure he knows that I can take him on easily.
"Hey, Pete, Luke," Flash smiles at us. "What's up guys?"
"Yeah, don't 'what's up guys' us in one breath and bully some kid in another," Peter says sternly.
"Bully? I was just asking for an assist. And this little pipsqueak started shooting his mouth off." Flash says looking back at the kid in the trashcan.
"Come on Flash. Think, how would you feel in his shoes?"
Empathy would not have been the approached I would have taken, but this is Peter.
"Lay off, Parker. I'm just messing, gees," Flash turns and walks up the stairs, dropping the backpack in his hands on the kid he had previously shoved into the trashcan.
"He's in a mood, keep an eye on him," Peter says. His body is tensed up and bitter.
I just give a nod and start to trail off after Flash, not how I want to spend my day… but sometimes you have to be the bigger person.
"Spidey Cycle speed, nothing like it in the whole city." Spider-Man brags over the communications that run through our bikes. "Power-Man?"
"And Power-Bike, batteries not included," I correct. "Try not to drool, I'd hate for you to get your mask all nasty."
"Try to keep up, Webs!"
"Spider-Man. Data shows four raids on Oscorp facilities last week. The main target appears to be chemical compounds, biological reactive serums related to livestock. Fury wants you two watching rail yards for tonight's Oscorp train shipment… Wait… did you just loop-dee-loop?" Coulson cut on his lecture with the question. "This is a serious mission, Spider-Man. No time for joy-riding the Spider Cycle or the Power-Bike!"
I keep my eyes focused on the road and twist the handles to jump the railing. If Spider-Man gets in trouble over joy riding that is not my fault.
I park the bike and start walking up to our stake out point. "Took you long enough!" I call down as he pulls up.
"You took a short cut!" Spider-Man instant calls back at me.
"Don't get mad just 'cuz my new bike is faster than your old bike," I say as he jumps up next to me.
"I'm not mad," He admits, sounds like something is bothering him. "I'm just bugged by something that Alex kid said."
He stops walking and looks up at me. "Do you think I've become popular?"
I can't help it, but that right there was the funniest thing I'm going to hear all night. I have to get a laugh in now. "You?" I can't help it, this is funny.
Peter sighs and keeps walking along the pathway.
I hurry to catch up with him. "It's cool man, people change."
"Not Flash, I thought he changed. Apparently, he just moved on to the next kid. I was never really afraid of Flash, because well, I'm Spider-Man. But Alex is just a regular kid. He needs help. I should do something about it." Spider-Man explains as we walk down the pathway above the railroads, "I still could…"
"Nah," I cut him off. "That's not you man. Take the high road. Get him some help. Go for revenge and you become the bully. Be the change you want, man, be the change."
"Since when did you get more sage than Iron Fist?" Spider-Man asks, clearly confused.
"Actually, I did steal that line from Iron Fist," I admit.
The ground starts to shake cutting me off from sharing the explanation about how fun Nova was to room with at first.
"Rumble... must be our Oscorp train." I look down at the tracks to see the beams of light approaching.
Spider-Man gives a nod and we take a running start to jump onto the train.
Sticking the landing we start to rush up to the front of the train where any staff would be. Saving civilians would be the first priority.
"Then again, maybe the rumble was our friendly rampaging Rhino!" Spider-Man says he points out the dark figure racing towards us.
He slams into the train easily derailing it as Spider-Man and I grab on tight and try to stay topside. I pull myself up some to get onto the train's right side that was now facing upwards. I look up to see another train barreling down another set of tracks.
I jump up and over and land grabbing the skidding derailed train and try to slow it down.
I can here Spider-Man helping out by webbing the train and surrounding structures. "Power-Man!"
I can feel the train behind me. "I can hold it, get the crew!" I shout back.
"Big, gray, and ugly is back!" Spider-Man complains.
I lift up the train once the crew is out and throw it off the tracks.
Rhino is so close by, gathering something from a train car. Spider-Man webs a trap which he blindly runs right into, dropping his prize.
"Rhino will do… uh… something to you! Just wait!" He shoots lying on the ground in webbing.
"And maybe more confused?" Spider-Man guesses landing on the ground.
"Yeah, if confused is code for dumb." Something's off about this. About Rhino…
"I hear you! No one makes fun of Rhino! Push Rhino around!" He struggles, but gets back to his feet, breaking apart the webbing that held him.
He moves quickly and his horn hit me dead on.
"Power-Man!" Spider-Man shoots.
I look up to see him thrown and land right next to me.
I sit up and grab my leg. "Rhino gashed my leg!"
Man, this hurts!
"You have unbreakable skin!" Spider-Man argues. He leans in to take a look.
"Yeah, but you don't!" I grab his head and turn it so he can see the stampeding villain racing towards us.
"Mayday! Man down by the train yard," Spider-Man calls into his watch. "Send-"
He stops and grabs my as he shoots a web and gets us out of the way.
"How could Rhino cut you?" He asks once we are back on the overpass walkway.
"Don't know man, doesn't matter… Just leave me here." I tell him, I hold my hands to my leg to try to keep the pressure on the wound. I'll be fine up here and out of the way.
"Leave you, no," Spider-Man says quickly. "You know the saying, Bros before Rhinos."
Very funny, webs… very funny…
"You wanna fight me?" Rhino yells up at us.
"I'd like to put you in a zoo." Spider-Man deadpans.
Bright lights turn on behind up and I look to see a SHIELD craft landing off a little in the distance.
"I'll deal with you later! For now, I'm going to take my medicine and go!" Rhino yells.
"Medicines?" Spider-Man asks as he puts my down where SHIELD agents are approaching up. "The Coulson's cavalry is here. You're going to be okay, Luke." He says helping me onto the gurney they had brought out.
"I'm okay now. Let me off of here." I tell the agents. "Let me off of here. Rhino's getting away."
"You need to sit tight Power-Man," Coulson says walking up. "A wound like that is going to put you out of commission for a while."
He walks past me and starts to talk to Spider-Man.
I look to the medics who are near the gurney, they are now way going to let me get up.
"Spidey, come on man, tell these guys to put me back in the game."
"No, Coulson's right. You need a medic check, just go. I bet you'll be back on the beat by sundown."
Spider-Man shoots a web and hangs upside down right as the medics push me past him. "Seriously don't worry about a thing, I can handle this. Just hang tight, get it? Hang?"
"Not funny," I warn. "Not funny at all."
"You must be hurt if you think I'm not funny."
The ride back to Parker's residence was quiet. The pain had gone down some; I almost couldn't remember what it felt like to get a cut like this. There was not much blood, it was already starting to heal, scab over.
It was so strange.
It's already about 10:30 at night. Ava was likely already getting into bed. Sam and Danny are likely doing the same.
I walk to my room and glare at the bed, I can't go to sleep. I have at least four hours worth of homework to catch up on.
I limp back into the living area and turn all the lights on. Slumping down at the coffee table and spreading out the table.
I get started with science and math, and then I can go onto English and history. And then my elective's homework too…
I groan and get started.
Not even an hour later and I could keep my eyes open.
I lay my head down on top of my textbook.
"Might I offer you some black tea?" A voice asks.
I look up to see Danny standing next to me with a coffee mug in each hand.
"Sure man," I mutter stretching out my back. I take the cup. "Is Peter back yet?"
Danny shakes his head as he sits down next to me, "no, not yet."
"Is Ms. Parker concerned?" I ask.
"No, she went to bed already," Danny said calmly taking a sip from his cup. "Take a break from math and do your reading for history."
I take a drink from the cup and make a face. The liquid wasn't sweet, it was a little bitter. "What is this?" I ask him.
"Black tea, per cup it has about 47 milligrams of caffeine. I thought you could use some. And if I sit down here with you to keep you on task then you can get your homework done faster." Danny replies easily.
"Oh, thanks." I sigh as I get out my history book.
My mind keeps thinking back to that quote Danny told me but I'm failing to remember.
It's quiet for a while and Danny has a book on the table next to his cup. The title read "The Story of My Experiments with Truth".
"What was that quote you told me last week?" I ask him out of the blue.
"Hm?" Danny looks up. "What quote?"
"About change?" I try to remember the whole thing
Danny thinks for a moment. "'You must be the change you wish to see in the world.' – Mahatma Gandhi."
"Yeah, that one," I agree and look back down at the textbook. "I used it with Peter."
"And what did he say?" Danny asks.
"He asked when I got more sage than you; I told him you were where I got that from." I shrug.
"Well, it is good to know that it was not wasted on deaf ears." Danny nods. "Now, please, you need to do your work. I'm here to keep you on task, not distract you."
"Fine, I'm working, I'm working," I groan.
The bike's engine roars once more and I focus in on Rhino, if I hit him straight on I might knock him down, better yet, actually do some damage.
The bike slams into Rhino perfectly as I jump off and start running the other way. There is gasoline everywhere. Sparks will be flying at the smallest spark.
The force of the explosion throws me into the air and I land and roll with the momentum, gracefully getting back up to my feet.
"Power-Man?" Spider-Man asks.
I look behind me back at Rhino to see him already up on his feet and getting ready to charge me. This guy is strong, going to have to try to play it safe.
I plant my feet in the ground and grip his horn as he goes to stab me, keeping him from advancing any further.
Rhino keeps on grunting. I could use some help here. Spider-Man in the background is talking with Flash. I can hardly catch their conversation through the growling in my ears.
"Spidey might have spoken too soon," I grunt. My grip's slipping. "I'm losing my grip." I strain the sentence as I feel my hands sliding on the smooth surface that is Rhino's horn.
"You? No way, you're the strongest guy I know." Spider-Man's reply isn't exactly helpful.
"No match for… ug… Rhino!" Rhino yells the fragment of a sentence.
I can hear Spider-Man moving around behind me.
Rhino's weight gets shifted off balance. Black oil covers him, only making my grip worse and my footing slippery.
Webbing hits my back in a matter of seconds after the oil was spilled and pulls me out of the way.
"Remember science class Rhino? You need friction to run." Spider-Man points out as Rhino falls, face first onto the oil puddle.
"Ready buddy?" Spider-Man looks over his shoulder at me.
"Let's do this." I give him a nod.
Rhino's on all four and trying to get back to his feet. He looks up right as Spider-Man and I had pulled back and released a punch, knocking him flat onto his back.
As soon as he hits the ground his body starts to shirk down. Back to that scrawny little kid who Flash had been picking on early this week, Alex…
"Me," Flash mutters walking up to us as we stood near the unconscious teen.
"Huh?" Spider-Man asks.
"It was me, I brought this on, and only I can make it better if I get the chance."
"A wise man once told me, 'be the change you want, man, be the change,'" Spider-Man said kind of half pointing at me.
"Well, slightly better performance than yesterday," Coulson says walking up to me after he had finished with some agents.
Spider-Man walked over to join us.
"Minimal wreckage, threat apprehended, and fine leadership with him today." Coulson lists off motioning to Flash.
"It should have gone smoother," Spider-Man complains. "I should have reported to you what Flash was doing to Alex, instead of trying to deal with it myself. And I couldn't have done any of it if Power-Man hadn't come through in the nick of time. And-"
"Listen to you," I cut him off. "You reminded me that power isn't the same as strength today. So let me remind you of something too; you're a good leader. Now deal with it." I poke the little spider on the front of his costume for emphasis.
"I left Web-Head speechless," I smile as I walk past him to get onto the SHIELD transport. "Now there's a serious superpower. Boom!"
It takes Spider-Man a minute to come chasing me up the ramp. "You did not leave me speechless!"
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