Chapter one
New York City traffic was at a standstill, which wasn't surprising. It was normal, for the large city that had many busy people trying to get places. Though for a tourist, it would feel ridiculous having to wait for so long to just get a short distance. Honking, and the hum of people engaging in conversations filled the air.
Inside a yellow cab two people sat in the back. It was easy to see they knew each other, but there was no conversation. Instead there was a curtain in silence that wasn't meant to be broken. It hung over the car heavily, as it had for days. Before the pair had even arrived in the city, it had been tense. Now the never ending sound of a crowd city seemed to make it a million times worse than it had been. Upfront the taxi driver flipped on the radio, getting bored as there was no gossip to listen to.
The pair that had traveled all the way from Charlotte, North Carolina. One of them was a teenager girl who was currently laser focused on an old smartphone. A youtube video had caught the fifteen year olds attention. A wire connection oversized blue headphones, that were placed on the teens head. Darcy Hargreeve's, thick natural curl's which had been dyed an unnatural white blonde, stuck out like a confused halo. Dark brown eyes, followed the phone screen, as she played with a strand of hair.
Beside her was a woman in her mid-forties. Dark hair had been pulled into a bun, and a book was held in her manicured hand. The two sat far apart from each other, though the woman would glance at the girl every few minutes. Unlike some would think they were not a mother and daughter pair. Instead, the woman, Daniella Jenson, as the teens caseworker. And they had traveled to the city in order to place the girl in kinship care.
Darcy didn't have a tragic backstory on how she landed in foster care, most kids didn't. Her great-grandmother who she lived with had been passed away, which hadn't been surprising. Since then the teen had floated around to different homes. It had been two years, and a total of three homes, until they had finally found a family member. Oddly enough she hadn't even been informed on who it could be. But, she had been told that she was in a special situation. And as she would soon learn the girl was definitely in one.
The car finally began to move, inching forward like a tired snail. Darcy was going they got to their destination, wherever it was soon. The smell of smoke lingered in the taxi, and it was far from clean. Though she had been in much messier places during her time in foster care it was still annoying. As the teenager had pretty bad asthma, which was acting up, and her inhaler sat in her bag in the trunk.
So she sat there struggling to breath not saying a single word, pretending the video playing on her phone was entertaining. Her headphones, made this act easier to believe though there was no sound going through them. The video was muted as she tried to keep her breathing somewhat under control. Darcy didn't plan to mention it to Mrs Jenson.
Part of what she was refusing to tell her caseworker was simply, that she felt bad. The woman who had a family of her own had traveled all the way to the city with her. When they found out that, Darcy's foster dad was unable to make the trip she had stepped in. The woman had dealt with her panic of flying for the first time, and even bought her lunch. Because of this she sat there in pain trying to hold back coughs.
Suddenly she began to wheeze and the chest pain was bothering her more than before. She passed it off as coughing, though that caused the woman to look at her. Though as the wheezing lead to real coughing the woman caught on to what was happening. She looked at the teen in shock before unfreezing.
"Pull the car over! We have a serious medical emergency!" Mrs Jenson yelled at the taxi driver in a panic.
After a moment of confusion to the driver tried to pull over. The issue was the road was to crowd and it would be hard to get the side quickly and safely. So the driver an older man decided that the best way to pull over was to disregard the safety of others. This left the yellow car dangerously swerving through the streets of queens.
The sound of honking increased, as the two passengers sat panicked. Darcy's wheezing had gotten worse, as the car threw them around. After a few terrifying seconds the car came to a rocky stop, outside of a bodega. Within seconds of them stopping, the older woman had gotten out and was digging through the truck. She had pulled the young teenager out and was making her stand as close to her as possible.
After a minute the woman had finally pulled out the girls bag, and was digging for the inhaler. But as she pulled out hair products, and lipgloss it didn't appear. Soon the trunk was littered with the girls things, the bag having been dumped. But the inhaler had yet to appear. Stuffing the girls things back in her bag, Mrs Jenson looked at the teen worried.
This is how they ended up rushing to find the nearest walk in clinic. More like the woman rapidly looking on her phone, and the teenager continuing to wheeze. As this went on no one really noticed, the streets of Queens crowded as always. The two currently stood beside the bodega with their bags, not wanting to keep the taxi driver. Darcy had asthma her whole life, so this wasn't surprising. Though every time she had an attack before her inhaler had been in reach. So now the teen just stood there unsure what to do besides fighting to breathe.
As Mrs Jenson had finally found an open clinic, Darcy saw something out of the side of her eye. Though she wasn't from New York City, the teenager still knew of the many heros known to protect the city. This included the one currently swinging around the streets. Though she didn't pay attention to him for very long as a coughing fit took over. Then came the chest pain that commonly came with an asthma attack. It had been there from the start though she had tried not to focus on it. Now if it had her leaning against a wall gasping for breath worse than before.
"Darcy!" Mrs Jenson said in a hurried way. "I found one down the block."
Though the woman was trying to sound positive it was easy to tell she was very much freaked out by what was happening. As even if the place was close, it wasn't safe to move the teenager. Which meant the only thing to do was to send the woman ahead, or have someone go for them. Of course the woman didn't plan on leaving a sick and freaked out teenage girl alone in a strange city. So she ditched hurrying to the clinic right away, and decided to find help.
"Sweetheart, I'm going to see if someone has an inhaler don't move."
With that the woman disappeared inside of the bodega. This left her in a worse state then before trying to hold herself up as breathing became harder. She didn't notice that someone had stopped trying to figure out what was going on. Instead she was fighting to breathe, the cold weather of fall in the city making it so much worse. Pulling her jacket closer to her, she gripped the fabric.
To her surprise moments later something was shoved in front of her face. It took her a monet to see what it was, but when she was able to focus it was clear. Someone had offered up their own inhaler, and the girl snatched it quickly. Bringing it to her lips she pressed down on the top, and the medicine released. Breathing it in she was able to regain some breath, though she used it once more before looking up. Though her breathing wasn't back to normal it was much better than it had been moments earlier.
Looking up, she glanced around before spotting the person who had aided her. A teenage boy stood in front of her looking worried. She wouldn't be surprised if he was the only one who had noticed what had happened to her. They looked at each for a second, before she remembered she had to give him his inhaler back. Holding it out, she waited for him to take it back, but he didn't
"You want your inhaler back right? Just saying you should probably take it." Darcy muttered now shoving it at him.
The boy looked at her a bit surprised, as if he expected her to keep it. Or maybe he was just surprised with how blunt she. The girl was normally rather quite, not voicing her thoughts on things or talking unless she had a good reason. It was a habit she picked up in her first foster home, and even though she wasn't there long it stuck. At the moment she just wanted him to take it back and keep going. As Darcy would rather people not pay much attention to her if they didn't even know her.
He shook his head pushing her hand back. "No, keep it! I don't need it my asthma hasn't acted up in a while. You need it more than me just take it."
Not being the type to argue she shoved it into her pocket, but frowned. Looking up she saw he was still there and frowned. It was easy to see that he was around the girls age in not slightly younger. The boy was still looking at her with his dark brown eyes, and he ran a hand through his brown curls. The two teeangers just kind of stood there awkwardly. It was odd that he hadn't left, but maybe it's because he was worried about her. Not that she should be, but then again she was still having issues breathing.
Before either of them had the chance to say anything a worried Mrs Jenson reappeared. Not noticing the other teen she looked Darcy up and down noticing her breathing was better than before. The teen could tell that her caseworker had been unable to find an inhaler, and seemed happy to see her breathing improved.
"Sweetheart, let's go to the clinic. We can see what they can do for you."
And with that the teenager was dragged down the street. And away from the boy who disappeared into an alleyway only for Spider-Man to be seen a few minutes later swinging around the city.