Chapter 25: Birthday Gift
I can't get a closer look of what's happening- otherwise I'll compromise the safety of the hostages. Why did they need to bring hostages? It would've been much easier without them. Spiderman watched as the woman circled them, clutching onto what seemed to be a white umbrella. Finally, just when Peter was bored, he heard a loud, slightly high-pitched voice scream out in anger "I'M NOT CRAZY!" Riiiiight, he thought, that explains the costume choice. He couldn't sit around for much longer- if she's crazy, who knows when she'll kill them? His head moved from side to side, hoping to find an open door. He found one to his left, jumping off the rooftop and web swinging through the doors silently. Time to try out a little stealth.
"What do you want from us?" one of the hostages demanded to know, hiding his fear of the crime boss. Beside him were two woman in the same predicament as himself.
The girl suddenly stopped circling the trio in front of the man who spoke. "You lovely doctors are gonna prove I'm sane." She then gave a smile proving she was anything but sane.
In disbelief, the female doctor exclaimed "What?!"
"You do realise that kidnapping us does exactly scream 'sane', don't you?"
"SHUT UP!" With this remark, the girl pointed her umbrella in the air, and to everyone's surprise, fired a small missile at the roof to silence the hostages. She then turned calm again. "If you comply, we'll hold you to ransom for...oooh...5 million dollars? Yes, that's a fair amount. And if you don't..." She pointed the umbrella's nuzzle directly at the man's head, finishing her sentence. "Have I answered your question, doc?" He nodded silently, his sweat evident on his forehead. Outside, a large blare of sirens lit the room red and blue. The ringleader turned to two of her men. "You two, tell them to shut up." The two men quickly dashed towards the open windows, dodging the odd piece of scraps littered on the floor. But before they could shout out to the police forces grouping outside, both felt a sticky string from the roof attach onto their hoods. Suddenly, one after the other, they were pulled up with great force into the shadows above, being suspended on the roof. The last thing they both saw before passing out were two bug eyes staring at them.
That's two of them down. 5 to go. With that, Spiderman crawled towards the area above where the hostages were. Below him, the woman grew more and more annoyed, both at the sirens and her men's failure to stop them. She quickly turned to another thug, this time speaking much more angrily. "Find the other two and bring them here! And turn off that racket outside!"
"Yes, White Rabbit." As he rushed off into the shadows towards the windows, he felt a whole net of webs trapping him on the ground, swiftly followed by a small web shot to the mouth. 4 more to go. After a while White Rabbit grew much more worried that there was someone else at play here. "Boys. Fan out! I want every nook and cranny checked. Find the others!" Weapons at the ready, the three remaining men spread out amongst the large room. Perfect. The web head scuttled his way towards the most nervous of the group, who had veered off towards a dark corner. Spiderman used a web string to slowly lower himself down, before jokily tiptoeing towards him. When he was directly behind him, he let out a quiet "Shhh." before sticking him to the wall with a web net. Before anyone saw him, he jumped up onto the roof again. Three left. He could hear one of the thugs cautiously scanning where he had just been been standing, speeding to the wall when he saw his colleague stuck to the wall. Before he could warn them, he felt himself being dragged by two strong hands up to the ceiling. He could feel the webbing surrounding him, preventing him from falling. This has gotta be a personal best. Only two people left. He chuckled to himself as he mad his way towards the last henchman, who shook at the fact that he was very much alone. He was afraid of what could be in the shadows...particularly the ones on the wall behind him... A sudden turn and torchlight revealed...nothing. He sighed in relief, but didn't anticipate the swift kick on the back sending him flying straight into the wall. Before he could retaliate, he felt multiple sharp pains where Spiderman fired many web shots at his body to keep him in place. Before disappearing into the shadows, he whispered to him "Now don't wander off." The thug tried to shout and scream, but the webbing around him mouth prevented him from doing so. And then it was one.
In the centre of the warehouse, White Rabbit started stamping on the ground with her white boots, irritated by the sirens. "SHUT UP! OR I SHOOT THEM!" she screamed at the open windows, pointing her weapon at the man.
"Wow. You really do act like a spoilt child." The girl quickly turned around to see the iconic red and blue hero emerge from the shadows, firing a web string onto her umbrella. With one tug, she stumbled towards his feet uncontrollably, making it much easier for Spiderman to handcuff her with webbing. At that moment, once the police heard Spiderman was on the scene, they stormed through the double doors, filling the room with shouting. Peter, once securing White Rabbit, made his way to the hostages, untying them from their bonds, keeping them calm as he did. "Don't worry guys, it's all over."
Once they were all freed, the police sergeant approached the web slinger. "Spiderman, what happened here?"
Remembering the party, he replied "I'd love to stay, but I've got a um...a thing." As he started to swing away on a web string he created, his heightened senses noticed one of the thugs, now mobile, sneakily pulling out a pistol from his long coat, pointing it at the sergeant. Immediately, Peter rushed in and rugby tackled the policeman just as the shot was fired. As Spiderman pulled him up again, it was apparent that he was okay...and that Spiderman took the bullet. Leaning on a pillar for support, he used his web shooters to create a covering for his wound before swinging off again. Normally, he'd enjoy the vibrancy of the night, all of the bold colours of billboards and signs shown off further. But not this time- instead, all he could focus on was easing the pain he had at the side of his stomach. Let's hope this trip out's the last one for today.
The Falcons had watched the news footage of the event whilst Peter was gone, relieved to see footage of him swinging away from the scene. Once WWN had stopped reporting, Suzanne sent Oliver to bed (despite his complaints) before starting to wash the dishes. With nothing to do until Peter came back, she started listening to the Passenger CD he had bought her in her room whilst setting up her new MacBook Pro. Lucy couldn't believe he had remembered the CD. On their second date out, she mentioned to him that there was this singer who she had only ever heard of once, and who she had only ever heard one song of. She told him that she absolutely loved the song. "Really? Do you remember how it goes?" She remembered humming the tune to the song, not knowing the words. He shook his head midway through, saying he didn't know. But he must've been lying, thinking about her birthday Suzanne had blurted out that same day to him. Even now she started humming as she worked:
?Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know your lover when you've let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you're missing home
Only know your lover when you've let her go
And you let her go?
Outside, Peter crashed into the wall of the house, only just managing to stick onto it. His breathing was fast and hard as the pain of his gun wound only worsened whenever he swung through the city. Luckily, he doesn't have to knock on the window anymore- Lucy can sense whenever he's waiting for her to open the window. The big smile she carried disappeared when she saw Peter clutch his side. Knowing he needed help, she used her super strength to pull him up and over the window ledge onto the floor, where he slowly scuttled towards the bed to lean on it. "Peter! What happened?!"
"Oh, nothing much," he joked, pulling off his mask, "one of the thugs tried to shoot a cop."
"And he missed?"
"No actually he had a good aim. Would've hit if I hadn't got in the way." He started to laugh quietly, causing Lucy to frown slightly.
"You know, you should also be looking out for yourself when you're out there."
Knowing better than to argue with someone on their birthday (let alone someone as stubborn as Lucy), he started to drift the conversation elsewhere. "So, just to check, this is the song, right," he said, noticing the music playing, "'cause it was difficult to tell."
"What do you mean?" At this, Peter started mimicking a moose call, trying to hold back both laughter and pain. It was Lucy's laugh that set Peter off, but he did not expect laughter to hurt this much when you've been shot. He winced, immediately catching Lucy's attention. "We're gonna need the First Aid kit from your room, I think."
"Before we do," he quickly interrupted, "can we just do one thing?"
"What is it?"
"Open the other present?" This was the present Lucy had no idea about. Most of her presents from before had been bought because of 'small' hints she had put in place. But apart from the CD- which wasn't even intended to be a hint- she hadn't told him anything about what she wanted. She didn't even expect to get anything from him. She quickly grabbed the present from her desk, half because she was curious to see what it was, half so that Peter could be patched up quickly. Cross-legged on the floor next to him, she ripped off the light blue wrapping as if she were 10 years younger. Her mind raced as to what it could be, but Peter knew she wouldn't guess what it was. She was surprised to unravel a deep blue, velvet box, the more of it revealed the bigger Peter's cheeky smile got. She slowly opened the box, gasping slightly at what was inside.
The silver necklace glistened in the now-emerging moonlight, even more so from the heart in the centre. The blue sapphire in the centre of the heart shone blocks of blue light across the room- her favourite colour. Peter's smile broadened as she slowly pulled out the necklace. "How do you like it?" He enjoyed her speechlessness at this point, but couldn't wait for her to say something.
"It's beautiful." Even now, she could only manage a whisper.
"You want me to put it on?" She silently nodded, staring at the necklace whilst Peter took it from her. Once in Peter's hands, she turned around, pulling her long black hair out of the way so that Peter could clip on the necklace. Her hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as Peter's arms stretched around to her torso, and she could feel her cheeks heat up and turn red. The necklace suited her really well- Peter certainly had taste. She turned back around when he was finished, giving Peter a long and passionate kiss, both of them holding each other in a warm embrace. It was only when Peter started to wince did they release each other. "I think I'd better get the First Aid kit now."
"Yeah, sorry, I forgot 'bout that." They both chuckled a bit, before he jumped out of the window to his house. I can't believe Peter would do this for me. After all I've put him through, the fact that he's been there for me. She started to smile to herself. Even though I won't admit it to anyone, I can still tell myself the truth. I'm definitely in love with him.
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