Chapter 20
"Put the flask back, Salem," Happy scolded as he stopped the limo in front of the school, looking at her from the rearview mirror. "Tony put one for you in the side panel, take that one instead."
Salem reached for the smaller and more discrete flask, putting it into the inside pocket of her jacket as she and MJ got out of the car.
"Cheers, Hap'"
"Text me when you want to go home," Happy winked. "Have a good time."
The music was loud as they walked into the Homecoming, changing between songs that left a great beat to dance to. There was a drink station to the side with food on another where they could go from to a table to eat and drink without being hit or jabbed into.
That was where they went first, grabbing a red solo cup each before pouring whatever they wanted before they were approached by members of the Decathlon team. That was fine, they just spoke about shit and about this and that.
There was a bit of dancing between MJ and Salem on the already lively dance floor, having convinced everyone to dance. The hued lights from the balloons intensified, beams pouring down as they swayed to the music. It became louder, almost deafening.
MJ just laughed as she saw Salem's eyes glow a tad too bright in the dim light, stopping as she saw Peter and his shocked face before putting up a middle finger. Salem laughed at that too, pausing when she saw Peter's nervous energy.
Her instincts said something was wrong and she didn't like it, so when Peter left, she excused herself. MJ was understanding as soon as she said Medusa business, understanding but confused.
)()()(
Medusa saluted as she appeared around the corner from Spider-Man in the warehouse. She took a quick look at the computers and monitors, spotting the Avengers Tower and the blueprints of the Stark plan. There was even the Vulture's wingsuit.
Nodding towards the other area, Medusa put her finger to her lips for silence about her being here, letting him walk into the room with Toomes leaning on a table.
"Hey! Surprised?" Spider-Man said, waving a hand as he came closer to Toomes.
"Oh, hey, Pete," Toomes said. "I didn't hear you come in."
"It's over. I've got you."
"You know, I gotta tell you, Pete, I really, really admire your grit," He laughed. "I see why Liz likes you. I do. When you first came to the house, I wasn't sure. I thought really. But I get it now."
Spider-Man shook his head. "How could you do this to her?"
"To her? I'm not doing anything to her, Pete. I'm doing this for her,"
He made a sound that made it so he didn't believe the older man, shooking a web and glueing Toomes' left hand onto the desk he was leaning on.
Toomes just sighed. "Peter, you're young. You don't understand how the world works."
"Yeah, but I understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong,"
"How do you think your buddy Stark paid for that tower? Or any of his little toys? Those people, Pete, those people up there, the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us, like you and me, they don't care about us. We build their roads and we fight all their wars and everything, but they don't care…"
As Medusa walked away from them, hiding easily in the shadows as though she belonged in them, she called Happy, telling him to stop the shipment. While he argued about the timeline and how these things needed to be in the Avenger Compound by morning, he had the people take everything off the plane.
While she was still only a teenager, she wouldn't advise this if it wasn't serious and she had explained part of what was happening so Happy complied.
As several bangs and clanks came from the room, she realised the Vulture wings were attacking the pillars and making it so that the roof would collapse in seconds. She barely had time to hang up and run over as the wreckage began to rain down on Spider-Man.
As she was already in her Medusa suit, she began to pull away debris from the area where he was. It took a minute for both of them, but Medusa held out a hand as she helped him up as he groaned in pain.
"There's nothing in the plane," She said, helping him dust off. "Called Happy and he emptied it. Vulture's target is an unmanned plane with nothing in it. Less casualties if we need to bring it down."
"We?" He exclaimed, ripping his mask off with an almost unbelievable look on his face. "Since when has there been a we?"
"Since you decided that helping is more important than keeping people alive," She said, passing him a comm so they could communicate since he didn't have his advanced suit. "We could quite easily let him have the plane because nothing's in it. Letting him go means he'll go again, so it's just easier to capture him now."
"Since when did you help me?"
"Because unlike my dad, I see what you're capable of even without the suit, and I know you would get in trouble regardless. Tony's revoked your proxy status for last time, but if you're with me, you'll be excused," She started to walk towards the opening of the place, pausing as she realised he wasn't following. "You coming or are you allowing me to have all of the glory?"
He shook his head and laughed at that, putting his mask back on as he caught up. "I'll go for him while you go for the plane. You sure no one is on it?"
"I'll be on it in a second," Medusa concentrated, powering her Magic in teleporting her into the plane like she did last time. A scorch mark from where she was standing to where she landed was left.
The plane was huge and had several dozen boxes on it, everything that was less dangerous and valuable. A lot of prototypes of things instead of everything that Tony would care about losing. The boxes didn't open on command and only did with a special code.
She checked one of the boxes, putting her thumb onto it as it opened to both Starks and Happy, before closing it. When she heard a thud of Vulture coming onto the cargo plane, she hid.
Vulture grunted in displeasure when one of the cargo boxes didn't open, sighing but nonetheless heading towards the cockpit.
"Just a typical homecoming," Spider-Man muttered into the comms, "On the outside of an invisible jet, fighting my girlfriend's dad!"
She had to actively stop herself from snorting in laughter at that.
A blaring sound of the alarm started, the lights flashing red. Vulture walked over to a screen, seeing Spider-Man there on the outside of the plane.
Medusa swore under her breath, putting herself against the wall and willing herself to use her abilities. She felt the tiredness and hunger coming, the thirst in her throat becoming unbearable as she realised using her abilities past her energy uses could be dangerous.
She shivered, feeling the pulse of something powerful coming from one of the cargo boxes. She walked over, opening it quickly but silently.
Inside the cargo box, a single Arc Reactor sat alone.
Happy was supposed to have removed all of them and kept them at the tower until it was safe. She supposed Happy and his helpers were in a rush and so they didn't do the best job.
"Thank fuck for mistakes," She said, reaching for it.
As soon as she had it in her hands, she felt her body extract the energy and absorb it. It took a couple of seconds but her hands began to have tiny purple waves of electricity coming over them. Her skin looked like it had static electricity as she clenched her fists before releasing them.
She felt good and she felt powerful.
Her hunger was gone, she felt full, overly so.
"Damn it, Salem. HELP ME!" Spider-Man almost screamed into the comms. "He's in the suit and he's attacking me again!"
"I'm coming!" She pushed herself against the wall, feeling the particles of the plane move around her until she completely phased through. "Well, that's new."
She walked on it like there was no gravity for her, standing sideways on the plane without any trouble. If she wanted, she could lay on its underbelly and not fall down. She'd have to try it out when she got home, maybe she could scare her dad like that.
Spider-Man was handing in the air, one hand holding onto the web that stuck to the plane and the other holding onto the web string glued to Vulture's suit.
The web that held onto the plane snapped, propelling him forward before he went back. He screamed as he neared the engine of the plane.
"Peter!" She yelled, holding a hand out as he neared her.
He missed her hand by millimetres. Instead, he shot a web at her hand and she grabbed onto it, pulling him to the side of the plane by the web until he got back to safety.
"Thanks," Spider-Man sighed in relief as they got to the top of the plane. He laughed.
"What?" She asked, questioning why he was laughing.
He gestured to his head. "Your hair. It looks like a porcupine."
She pouted, huffing as she touched her hair. "Thanks. I need a haircut. Hey, watch out!"
Medusa pulled him to the side just as Vulture's wing drew a huge scrape across the top of the plane.
"Asshole."
"Agreed,"
Vulture attached himself to the plane, beginning to claw at it with his wings to try and get in. " I'm not going home empty-handed!"
"The plane is heading towards the city, you need to get inside and change the directions," LILITH said into the comms, sending to both heroes.
Medusa nodded, walking over to the top of the plane where the cockpit would be under. She phased through, landing in the cockpit before sitting down on the pilot chair.
"More!" Spider-Man yelled as the direction needed to be changed manually.
She drew the plane to the right a lot more, missing the city narrowly as she heard Vulture tear open the ceiling and take a box into his claws.
"He took a box!" She said, "They're all useless but Happy didn't do a good job of emptying them all. Could be something important in them."
"He's holding onto the plane with the box!"
"I'm crashing the bird, brace yourself!"
Medusa steered the plane into a red tower a couple of metres away from other buildings, breaking the left wing before crashing the plane into the next building near the tower as LILITH said it was empty.
The plane continued to slide for a couple of seconds, halting to stop as Vulture and Spider-Man struggled to keep on it.
Spider-Man was flung several dozen metres away, landing harshly just as Medusa got out of the plane with minimal injuries. He grunted as he ripped his mask off, breathing heavily.
"You alright?" Medusa asked, running over as he struggled to stand up. "Damn."
He barely could stand up, meaning he got injured and was disoriented at the moment.
She rubbed her hands together, making him stay still as she put them to his head as purple mist seeped from her hands. Concentrating, her eyes glowed Medusa Purple as she willed her powers to let her see what was wrong with him and heal it. His ears were ringing and he had trouble moving from the trauma put onto his limbs from all of this.
Medusa healed him enough that his own healing abilities would keep him standing and didn't need to overwork to heal him too. It seemed like healing others took up a significant amount of her energy, but the Arc Reactor made it so she had plenty this time. If she had only the normal amount she had in a day of no superheroing, she would be unconscious.
"Thanks," He muttered as soon as he could stand, holding onto her a little as he became steady on his feet.
"I healed you enough that it rebooted your healing," She said. "You'll heal a bit quicker for the time being. You'll be fine in a coupl—"
Vulture tackled both of them, making both of them tumble before they could get him to release them and go flying away. They were flung into the air, a couple of metres high enough that if they didn't land correctly, they could hurt themselves badly again.
Spider-Man grabbed her, making sure they both rolled across the sand as they landed. They skidded to a stop, still holding each other before they got up.
Vulture landed, his wings sparking as they were damaged and almost useless. He had to almost push the wings himself to get them around him instead of in front or in his way.
"Hey, Pedro," He greeted.
Medusa snorted, tapped the back of her hand on Spider-Man's chest. "Pedro."
"Shut up," Peter snickered.
"Oh, shit,"
Vulture jumped forward, gliding until he reached them before using one wing to actively fling Medusa away. She was sent flying as he attacked Spider-Man, pinning him down with a foot before beginning to punch him.
Medusa landed on part of the plane, being actively impaled by a thick piece of metal through the lower back. Another impaled her in her left thigh, missing the arteries by inches but making it so there was a huge pole sticking out of it.
Within her mind, it felt like a new but yet familiar part of her surfaced.
Instead of Salem's Medusa, the Darkling came out.
Eyes glowing the deep, dark shade of power purple, Darkling sighed and grunted in pain as she lifted herself off of the metal that impaled her, letting her Magic numb the areas before healing her rapidly.
She reached back, touching the bloodied mess and the back of her suit where it ripped. There was a hole in her trousers too, and a huge rip on her left bicep where metal had scratched her.
It seemed like Shuri didn't think of the suit needing to be rip-proof.
None of the holes in her suit bothered her, letting her get back to the thing at hand.
Darkling got up easily, making her way over to where Vulture was knocking the shit out of Spider-Man before he realised he saw a crate not far away.
"Bingo!" He ripped his helmet off before using his malfunctioning suit as the sparks began to multiply. As he began to try and lift the crate, his suit sparked even more.
"Your wing suit's gonna explode!" Peter screamed as he tried to get up.
Darkling walked until she got closer, sticking out a hand with fingers spread before clenching them together into a fist as a purple mist appeared around Vulture's suit. She crushed the wings together with her Magic, before making them useless by ripping them away with the same powers.
Vulture fell to the ground, wingless yet he still tried to move as the suit around him constricted like a python.
Duke appeared around him, the size of an anaconda as he began to squeeze the Vulture like prey.
"Salem, stop!" Peter tried, getting up and going as fast as he could towards her as she marched over to Vulture with a walk too similar to the Winter Soldier. That gave him the idea.
"Please pick up," He muttered as he asked LILITH to connect him to Bucky.
"What?" He barked. "Who's this?"
"It's Spider-Man, sir, I mean Winter Sargeant, I mean sir,"
Bucky sighed. "What happened?"
"I think, er, Salem's gone a little crazy," Peter said. "I'm scared she's gonna kill Vulture."
"Then stop her," He said calmly.
"I kinda don't want to be in her way… if she does, does it matter?"
"Yes, yes it does,"
"Kinda rude to talk about me when I'm right here, Pedro," She said into the comms as she paused a couple of feet away from Toomes. "And I'm not gonna kill him. Just making sure he doesn't bother anyone else anymore."
Bucky made a sound of approval. "Means she's gonna get information and then threaten him. I'll contact the local PD to get him later. She'll just hurt him a little."
"Is that allowed?"
"Who's gonna stop her?"
"Good point." Peter paused. "Thanks." And then he hung up.
He weighed the pros and cons, knowing he didn't have authorisation without Medusa being with him. He just watched as she walked over to Vulture, crouching before him and holding one of his wrists with mist surrounding both of them.
She got him to talk, recording it in case the courts needed it.
Salem finished up as fire engines came, grabbing onto Peter before using her abilities to get them somewhere else.
They sat on the Cyclone, Duke now smaller and wrapped around Salem as she sat in her prom outfit instead of her fighting suit.
"Here," She said, taking out a little flask from the inside of her jacket. "Take a bit. It'll take the edge off of the pain. Not enough to get you drunk."
"I'm not old enough to drink,"
"Nor am I but my dad gave me the flask for tonight,"
"Your dad's awesome,"
"I know." She grinned. "Let's go back to mine and get you sorted out before you go home."
"Does your dad know you're bringing a boy home?" He teased, laughing when she made a face.
"He told me to wrap it before I tap it," She said, giving him a look before patting him on the shoulder. She laughed as he groaned at the slight impact. "I think you're a little too injured for that kind of activity. Besides, aren't you dating Liz? I like her. She's beautiful and actually nice. I'd date her if I had the chance."
"I thought you were dating MJ,"
"Nah. As much as MJ and I are friends, that's all."
"Aren't you scared someone's gonna try and take advantage of you because you're a Stark?"
"Yeah. Always have that. Even with friendships. That's why I'm with MJ as friends instead of say Flash or Liz, or anyone else."
He nodded. "MJ's nice. A little bit of a bitch but nice."
"Bitchy in a nice way, yeah," She laughed, getting down from the wooden rails where she and Peter sat. She jabbed him in the side. "Come on before you break another rib."
He rubbed the area she jabbed. "You're an asshole sometimes."
She just spread out her arms as she began to take a couple of steps backwards. "You know who my father is. Father like daughter."
Peter rolled his eyes, getting down easily. He shot a web onto one of the tracks of the rollercoaster, grinning as he wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Brace yourself,"
"That's a dick move, Pedro!"