A/N: y'all ever write a scene and just feel your mind go YES YOU LITERARY GENIUS YES YES YES and you feel like the fucking russos would be proud of you for writing that masterpiece. anyways i wrote a scene from chapter like 175 and let me say im ready for y'all to get there cause DAMN it's straight up fire
fyi i wrote most of this chapter during my zoom meeting for my physics class lol. can you tell how much i'm interested in physics lol
and in other, unimportant news, in the famous words of joey tribianni: "I WANNA GOOOO (outside)!" i think ive reached a new level of crazy. now i have an imaginary british boyfriend because i so desperately need someone who isn't my family to talk to hehe
BUT ITS BEEN TWO WEEKS SINCE IVE SEEN TO YALL which is totally my fault cause i got writer's block and could not finish this chapter for the life of me but now it's done. so so. not as good as i wanted it to be but whatever
"I just like coming here to
sketch people in crisis."
Adrian hit the table, angry.
"I can finish the next order, but without any new materials from that truck..." Mason said, saudering something at his desk. They were in the warehouse, trying to figure out what to do about the missing materials.
"Ugh, damn it," Adrian grumbled, "We still have enough to do the Gargan deal though, right?"
"Yeah, but then that's it," Mason said. Adrian sighed, leaning against the table Mason was working on. He caught Flint's eye across the room.
"He was a kid," Flint said, lifting one shoulder, "Sounded young. Teenager, maybe."
"Oh, maybe it is time that I built the high-altitude seal," Mason said under his breath. Adrian groaned.
"Would you shut up about that?" he muttered, pushing himself off the table.
"It's only one job," he argued.
"No," Adrian snapped. He stood in the middle of the room, running a hand down his face. He glanced at Flint.
"Eight years, not a word from the Feds, nothing from those Halloween-costume-wearing bozos up there in Stark tower," Adrian said to Flint, "And then all of a sudden, this little bastard in red tights shows up and he thinks he can tear down everything I've built. Really?"
He shrugged, pursing his lips.
"I'm gonna kill him," Adrian shrugged, "I'm gonna find him–"
"I found him," Flint said and Adrian turned to him in surprise.
Flint gestured to the tv playing behind Adrian. He studied the news. They were showing Spider-Man at the Washington Monument. The headline read Man Spider Climbs Washington Monument.
"Spider-Man swooped in, heroically saving an Academic Decathlon team from Queens. The identity of the masked hero is still unknown."
Adrian studied the screen with an unreadable expression.
It was nighttime.
It had been several hours after they had gotten everyone out of the elevator. The school had notified the parents of the incident and they were all on their way here now. Their class was still at the monument, now surrounded by several police and a couple firefighter trucks, waiting for their families.
Adelaide was standing alone, off to the side, a few feet away from the group, against one of the firetrucks, wrapped in a blanket. She wasn't cold, but she was still shivering.
She looked through the crowd, wondering if Tony would come to get her. It was ridiculous but...
The first person to arrive was Liz's mom.
"Mom," Liz breathed, running up to hug her and sinking with relief into her arms.
"It's okay. Alright," her mom said into her shoulder, hugging her closer. Only a moment later, Ned's mom appeared and immediately engulfed him into a hug.
Adelaide pulled the blanket closer around herself. Maybe Pepper would come. Or Happy.
"Peter?" a familiar voice said.
Adelaide turned to her left where May had just walked past the barricade of officers. She ran up to Peter, embracing him in a huge hug.
"Oh my god," May breathed into his shoulder, shaking. Peter wrapped his arms around her, burying his face into her shoulder.
"I'm okay, May. I am," he said to her, rubbing her back to calm her down. She turned her head to kiss his cheek before hugging him again, even more tight and absolutely refusing to let go even for a moment. Adelaide swallowed the lump in her throat.
She turned away, looking past the line of officers and bellowing sirens, looking for — praying for — Tony. Or Pepper. Or Happy.
Just...someone.
And then a sinking feeling entered her chest. Adelaide pulled the blanket closer as if it would erase the anchor slowly pulling her heart down to her stomach. She closed her eyes, feeling them burn and leaned her head back against the firetruck. She let out a shaky breath, suddenly very exhausted.
Maybe this was how it was supposed to be.
"Adelaide?"
She opened her eyes, looking around in the dark. May was standing there, looking at her in relief. Adelaide glanced at Peter who just looked away. She slowly walked up to the woman, hesitating. She didn't really want to step on their moment. After all, they were family, and she was just...there.
"Thank goodness you're okay," May breathed, engulfing her in a huge hug.
Adelaide blinked in surprise before she collected her thoughts enough to wrap her arms around the woman. May smelled like shampoo. As if she had just taken a shower before she heard the news and came over.
Adelaide pulled away, feeling guilty for hugging her.
May gestured to Peter who shook his head, but she pulled him into a hug without listening. She squeezed all three of them together into a huge bear hug. Adelaide awkwardly hugged May with one arm, keeping the other away from Peter even though their arms were brushing against each other.
"I was so scared," May said quietly. Adelaide gently rubbed her back.
"We're okay, May," she assured her.
And for that moment, she really was.
"This past weekend, Midtown's Academic Decathlon team defeated the country's best to win the national championship. Later that day, they also defeated death," Jason said on the tv announcements. They had called some members of the decathlon onto the show as guests this morning.
"Explosion. Sally scream. Flash scream. Everybody screamin'," Abe recited. He was sitting on a sofa beside Charles, along with Mr. Harrington.
"There were purple lasers and smoke everywhere, It was—" Charles said excitedly. Except he got a little too excited and a cat emoji appeared over his mouth as his words began to be beeped.
"—just like a Bon Jovi concert," he finished with a grin, having no idea that most of his sentences had been beeped out.
"As you know, we made it out alive, and that's the important thing," Mr. Harrington said, "I couldn't bear to lose a student on a school trip...Not again."
The camera awkwardly zoomed in on his face.
A moment later, it switched back to the anchors.
"Thankfully, no one was seriously injured," Jason said, "thanks to the Spider-Man."
"Thank you, Spider-Man," Jason and Betty said together awkwardly.
"Up next: The Spider-Man mania is sweeping the school. How can you show your spider spirit?"
Adelaide looked away from the tv with a sigh, turning back to her locker. Sure, Spider-Man The Great might have saved everyone, but no one knew that it was his fault they were put in danger to begin with. Typical.
"Dude, dude, dude, dude," she heard a familiar voice say behind her, "What is it like being famous when nobody knows it's you?"
She looked over her shoulder to see Ned grinning at Peter with a childlike wonder while Peter was grinning proudly. She scowled.
"Crazy, dude," Peter grinned.
"It's crazy," Ned said and then paused, "Should we tell everyone?"
"No," he said immediately.
"Should I tell everyone?" Ned asked. Peter turned to him, looking around. She pretended to be messing the with dial on her locker when he looked in her direction.
"No, dude, no, that's not a good idea," he said to his best friend, lowering his voice. Ned nodded and then straightened up.
"Okay, come on, we'll be late to class," Ned said. Peter straightened up.
"I'm not going to class," he said. Adelaide listened closely. Was there some other arms deal about to happen today? Ned's eyes widened.
"You're already in so much trouble for ditching the Decathlon," Ned said.
"Dude, listen, I figured it out, right? The wing suit guy and the sand dude are stealing from Damage Control. And what they take from Damage Control, is how they build the weapons. So all I gotta do is catch them," he said quietly. Adelaide frowned.
There was another guy? Who was the wing suit guy? She had only seen the sand guy that night. And what the hell was this idiot thinking? Taking on two guys like that at once? Was he insane? He was going to get himself killed.
"...But we have a Spanish quiz," Ned argued.
"Ned, I'm probably never gonna come back here," Peter said, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder, "Mr. Stark is moving the Avengers upstate, so when I bring this guy in—"
"Dude, you want to be a high school dropout?" Ned asked, his eyes widening. Adelaide rolled her eyes. Peter was getting way too far ahead of this. And a bit cocky. Never a good combination.
"I am so far beyond high school right now," Peter chuckled.
Suddenly, she heard their principal.
"Parker, Rivers, my office."
They were at detention for leaving the team.
Adelaide was sitting a couple desks over from Peter and was trying to ignore the dirty looks he kept giving her. She hoped he wouldn't ask her where she was during the decathlon because she didn't have the energy to come up with another lie at the moment.
"So...You got detention," Steve said. They were playing a clip of Captain America that they always played in detention, "You screwed up."
Peter let out a long sigh, dropping his head into his desk in exasperation. He was getting antsy being holed up in detention when there was so much out there that he needed to do.
Michelle looked up from her notebook, glancing at the supervisor and then back down again. Adelaide couldn't think of a single reason why Michelle was here, but she didn't bother asking. She had a feeling the curly-haired girl wouldn't answer.
Coach Wilson was supposedly in charge of detention but he was sitting behind a desk at the front, nodding off.
"You know what you did was wrong. The question is, how are you gonna make things right? Maybe you were trying to be cool. But take it from a guy who's been frozen for 65 years, the only way to really be cool is to follow the rules."
Adelaide cringed hard. How much did Steve get paid to do these things? And why in the world did he do them?
Suddenly, Peter stood up.
Adelaide watched him, alert.
"We all know what's right. We all know what's wrong. Next time those turkeys try to convince you of something you know is wrong..."
Peter grabbed his backpack and walked out of the room. Adelaide sat up straight, turning around to look after him. He disappeared around the corner in a hurry.
She and Michelle shared a look.
Quickly, Adelaide stood up. Pulling her hoodie over her head, she grabbed her backpack and hurried after him.
"Hey, where you guys going?" Coach Wilson mumbled lazily after they were gone, "Get back here."
"Just think to yourself, what would Captain America do?" Steve continued. Coach Wilson glanced at Michelle in confusion. She was the only one left in the room.
"Why are you here?" he asked, "You don't even have detention."
"Oh, I know," she smiled, scribbling something down onto the notebook in front of her, "I just like coming here to sketch people in crisis."
She held up her notebook to show him.
"Heh," she said awkwardly, "It's you."
"So your body's changing. Believe me, I know how that feels," Steve said.
Coach Wilson let out a heavy sigh.
He should have kept his job as a magician at the mall.
In the hallway outside, Peter had stopped in front of a row of lockers.
Adelaide was crouched behind the corner of the dark hallway, watching him intently. He looked around and then lifted the lockers off the ground, revealing a hidden space underneath.
Quickly he grabbed a bottle of his web fluid and lowered the lockers back down. Looking around once again, he casually walked down the hall.
Adelaide turned herself invisible and followed him.
Peter had led her to an alley not far from the school.
Looking around once again, he ducked into the alley and shook off his backpack. Adelaide wearily followed him into the alley, still invisible. She stood a few feet from him, crouched behind a dumpster. What the hell was he doing here?
She watched him as he pulled his jacket off, throwing it onto his backpack. Then, he began unbuttoning his shirt quickly. Adelaide's eyes widened. What the hell? She averted her eyes, staring at the ground. She swallowed as her heartbeat began to speed up like crazy. For a moment, her mind was blank. And then the thought invaded her mind out of nowhere.
Just a peek...he never has to know.
But it was Peter.
Despite that, she slowly lifted her eyes off the ground.
She nearly made a choking sound as the air going through her windpipe cut off. Her lips parted.
He was standing there only in his boxers.
Holy shit...
Adelaide knew she should probably look away, but damn. She had no idea that he had...changed so much after the spider bite. He was shuffling through his backpack with his back to her.
She tried to look away, she really did. But she was only just a teenage girl. And there was a hot, half-naked boy standing in front of her.
There was only so much she could control.
She paused. Did she just call Peter Parker hot? It was Peter. He wasn't supposed to be...hot. He was just...Peter. The guy she used to be best friends with. It was so weird calling Peter Parker hot. Until now, she hadn't even realized those words belonged in the same sentence.
But looking at him now...they definitely did.
Adelaide watched his back muscles as he looked through his backpack. She bit her lip hard. Good God. He was gorgeous. He turned around, now with his suit in his hand, and ran his hand through his hair. That one damned curled fell into his eyes. He was even more gorgeous from he front.
She hard a time believing this was the same Peter Parker that she knew. This guy looked...he looked like a superhero.
To her disappointment, he pulled his suit on, covering up his body.
Adelaide let out a short breath, looking away. She really needed to get back in control over her mind. That little lapse in judgement was not good.
Well, it had been for a good reason, but...
She decided as long as he kept his clothes on, she would be fine. For the greater part of their friendship, he had kept his clothes on so she wouldn't have to worry about that happening again. And she definitely did not want it to happen again. Right? Of course not. It was Peter. It was weird.
Besides, it wasn't her fault. He was the one who had decided to strip half naked in some random alley.
When he pulled his mask on, she stood up, ready to follow him.
She had kept her hoverboard in her backpack since DC so she silently pulled it out, firing it up. She was suddenly grateful Tony had made it a silent machine. Just like she had suspected, Peter swung himself onto the roof of the building to their right.
She climbed onto her hoverboard and followed him up.
"Hey, Karen. What's up?" she heard him saying as she flew up to the rooftop.
She had disabled communication between them so she couldn't hear what Karen replied to him and he couldn't hear what TADASHI was saying to her. Quietly, Adelaide reached into her backpack for her contact lens so she could see what TADASHI was showing her.
Adelaide made sure to stay a few feet away from Peter. He was hanging upside down from an antenna tower with his back to her.
"Should I connect communication, Adelaide?" TADASHI asked her once the lens were in. She could see a green button with Peter's name to connect their comms in the bottom right corner of her vision.
"No," she whispered to him, "We're spying."
"Shall I activate stealth mode?" TADASHI asked. Adelaide shrugged.
"Sure."
Suddenly, her vision changed from normal to enhanced. Her AI was showing her all of the things that she could accidentally make noise with and places where she could step that were the quietest. The noise of the traffic was drowned out and she could hear Peter more clearly now.
"Hey, Peter," Karen said to Peter, "How was your Spanish quiz?"
"Listen, I was wondering if you could help me. I'm trying to figure out who the guys under the bridge were that night, but I mean, I can only kind of remember part of a license plate," he said.
Adelaide frowned. Under the bridge? What was he talking about? This might have been before she had found out what he was doing.
"I can run facial recognition on the footage of that encounter."
"Footage?" she heard Peter say. She narrowed her eyes. If he had footage, then they could easily find the source of the weapons, assuming that those guys under the bridge that night had been directly involved with this arms dealing.
"Yes, Peter. I record everything you see," Karen said.
"Everything?"
"Everything."
"Like all the time?" Peter asked, jumping off the tower. He began pacing across the roof. Adelaide ducked further behind the generator even though she was invisible. She had to be careful to not trigger his spidey-sense.
"It's called the Baby Monitor Protocol," Karen said. She heard Peter sigh in frustration and then he sat down on the edge of the roof, leaving his feet hanging off the side.
"Yeah, of course it is," he mumbled, "Um, yeah, just roll it back."
"With pleasure."
The footage showed up, but it was him with his mask on, fooling around in front of a mirror.
"Hey, everyone. Yeah, kick-ass party. Hey, what's up, Liz? Peter's told me a lot about you," he said in the footage and then winked. Peter cringed.
"No, no, no. No, no, no. This is just me messing around," he said, "Change it, change it!"
Karen fast-forwarded the video.
"It is I, Thor, son of Odin!" He held up a wooden hammer.
"No, no, no, no, no, no. That's definitely...no," he sighed, "That's definitely not what we wanted to watch. Just..."
"Your impressions are very funny," Karen smiled.
Suddenly, Ada's face appeared in front of him. They were sitting by a pool.
Peter stopped, frowning at the image.
The light from the pool was illuminating her face a shade of blue. Peter's breath got caught in his throat. He had completely forgotten about that night. Back when Ada was mad at him for ditching them during the science fair.
"I think you should forgive him," he heard himself suddenly say and Ada looked up at him in surprise.
"You do?" she asked, "Why?"
"Well, you said he's your best friend, right?" he asked and she nodded, "Then he probably misses you and he probably feels terrible about what happened."
Peter's lips parted. Something about her expression in that moment made his heartbeat speed up.
"You're overthinking it," he said, "You miss him too, don't you?"
"Too?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.
"I-I mean he probably misses you too," he stuttered, "So...um, do you? Miss him, I mean."
"Yeah," she said quietly, staring at the water, "A lot."
Peter swallowed hard. He wanted to tell Karen to turn it off, but he couldn't get the words out.
"Then what are you thinking about! Forgive the poor guy!" he said. Ada bit her lip, looking unsure.
"I don't know..." she muttered.
"Don't think too much," he said.
"Okay," she breathed, sitting up straighter, "Okay, I'll forgive him."
"Yes!" he shouted, throwing a fist in the air and Ada laughed, giving him a strange look.
"Why are you so happy about it?" she asked with a smile.
"I'm just very...happy for Peter," he lied, "He sounds like a really great guy."
For a long minute, Peter was silent.
He began thinking about Ada before things became a mess between them. Before everything changed. Did he miss her? He didn't even have to think about the answer. Of course he did.
It was Ada. She had been his best friend. Of course he missed her. They used to do everything together and now...they couldn't even be in the same room for longer than two minutes.
She had been there for him through a lot of things. Especially when he had acted like a dick and ditched them without explanation. And when she had been mad at him then, it had eaten him alive. He remembered thinking back then that all he wanted was for them to be okay again. He had missed her like hell.
Even now, he wanted things to be okay between them again. He wished things could go back to the way they were before.
Every time they fought, he missed her whether it had been his fault or hers.
But...things just weren't the same anymore.
He sighed quietly, swallowing.
"Karen..." he said quietly, "Just...Just fast-forward to the arms deal."
Adelaide watched, confused about his sudden change in mood. She down beside him, a couple feet away.
The footage showed him the three men that were there that night under the bridge.
"Okay. The two on the right," Peter said, becoming focused again, "who are they?"
"Searching law enforcement databases...No records found for two of the individuals."
"Nothing?" he asked.
"One individual identified," Karen suddenly said, "Aaron Davis, age 33. He has a criminal record and an address here in Queens."
Karen displayed Davis's criminal record for him to see. He frowned.
"Let's pay him a visit," Peter said.
"Would you like me to activate the Enhanced Interrogation Protocol?" Karen asked.
"Uh, yeah," Peter said, thinking it sounded like a good idea. He stood up, looking around. Adelaide scrambled up too. She waited for him to swing off.
But she had not expected him to swing off directly into her.
"Oomph!" she groaned, losing her focus on her powers as her back hit the floor. She immediately switched herself to the Blue Phantom.
"What the hell?" Peter mumbled, rubbing his head. He looked down at her in confusion. His spider eyes widened.
"What are you doing here!" he shouted. Adelaide sighed.
"Get off me," she mumbled and he looked down, realizing he was still lying on top of her.
He quickly scrambled up and got into a defense position, putting some distance between them. Rubbing the sore point on the back of her head, the Blue Phantom slowly stood up.
"H-How long have you been here?" he asked. Adelaide sighed.
"Long enough," she said.
"You have got to stop spying on me," he groaned, running his hands down his face, "You cannot just follow me everywhere and expect me to be okay with it!"
"I don't expect you to be okay with it," she said, rolling her eyes. He began pacing, shaking his head.
"You are just— argh! I couldn't even see you!"
"That was the point," she said, hiding a smile. He glared at her.
"What do you want?" he grumbled. Adelaide crossed her arms across her chest.
"Same as you. I want to stop the dealers," she said. He didn't look convinced so she added, "We're on the same side, Spider-Man. Besides, you can't stop me from following you."
He wanted to argue but he just let out an angry sigh instead.
"Fine. You win. Again," he grumbled, "But for the record, this is cheating."
"We can worry about the record after we catch the bad guys," she said. He rolled his eyes under his mask. This girl was impossible. And extremely stubborn.
"So who are we visiting?" the Blue Phantom asked. He frowned, remembering the situation again.
"Aaron Davis. He's a buyer. I caught him one night with the dealers," he told her reluctantly, "I was going to catch them then, but...this wing dude got me instead."
"Wing dude?" she asked.
"Yeah, it's this guy in a wing suit. Don't know who he really but...he and the Sandman are in charge of this whole thing. If I can get Aaron David to tell me where they are, I can stop them."
Adelaide gave him a look. He glared at her.
"We can stop them," he sighed. She smiled.
"Great. Let's go," she said, powering her hoverboard on. Peter frowned, staring at the hoverboard in her hand. Adelaide watched him.
"What? Come on," she said.
"Yeah...Yeah, it's just...Where did you get that?" he asked, staring at her hoverboard. He had noticed it last time too, but he never got a chance to say anything with everything that had been going on.
Adelaide's eyes widened.
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
She had completely forgotten about that. Her brain scrambled to find a believable excuse. She could not deal with Peter finding out the truth right now. Her mind might just explode at that point.
"Um...I...my...friend gave it to me," she stuttered, saying the first lie that had popped into her mind. Peter narrowed his eyes.
"Who's your friend?" he asked carefully, stepping forward.
Adelaide tried to backtrack but there was no use. He was the one who had given it to her. Saying anyone else name would tip him.
"Adelaide," she said.
"Really," he said, studying her. She looked away, clearing her throat.
"Really."
"How do you know her?" he asked. Goddamnit, Pete. She really wanted him to stop asking questions about this.
"She, uh...we're neighbors," Adelaide said. She internally cursed at herself. God, she was terrible at lying. She tried to flip the conversation onto him. "How do you know her?"
"We...uh, we used to be friends," he answered. Adelaide studied him for a heartbeat before looking away and clearing her throat.
"Cool," she mumbled, "Very...uh, c—"
"Have you been following me since the alley?" he suddenly asked.
Adelaide suddenly felt her face getting very hot. She swallowed, remembering the alley again. She could vividly picture him without the suit even thought she tried not to.
"W-We should really get going," she mumbled, avoiding his gaze.
Peter's lips parted in surprise. He suddenly looked away from her, his face heating up too. He cleared his throat awkwardly.
Had she...? Had she seen him...?
Oh, God.
"Y-Yeah. Let's just- let's go," he muttered in embarrassment and quickly shot a web out to swing himself off the building.
Adelaide followed him, silently cursing at herself.
A/N: anyone been to a bon jovi concert can confirm?
okay but was that one scene spicy or spicy? lol someone asked for adie to catch peter shirtless but i had already it planned it beforehand so there ya go
quarantine tip: watch curious george if you want peace of mind even if it feels ridiculous. ive been watching it with my younger brother lately and oh my gosh it's such a relief to genuinely relax for a bit considering everything that's going on
question: anyone else strangely attracted to the man with the yellow hat?
