Peter scrambled to collect his things as Katya dropped down from where she'd been perched, turning her comms back on. Peter did the same.
They sprinted out of the vault, looking around wildly for anything they could use to get back to DC faster. A covered truck was headed their way and they glanced at each other before running across the driveway to hide behind a support pillar until it got close enough. When it did, Peter grabbed Katya and webbed them both to the top.
"Okay, Karen, I need you to plot me the fastest route to the Decathlon." He said, crouching low.
"Where is it?"
"Right across the street from the Washington Monument." He ripped his cellphone from his pocket, dialing Ned's number, but it went straight to voicemail. They must be in Decathlon already. "Ned, call me back, the Lite Brite is a bomb!" He yelled into it.
Per Karen's directions, Peter and Katya car hopped back to DC, darting over cargo trucks and long-haul roofs, until they finally reached the street across from the monument. They leapt off the bus they were on and sprinted towards the monument, where they could just see the tail end of a bright yellow blazer entering the monument's lobby.
Peter's phone began to yodel in his pocket and he grabbed it immediately. "Ned! You're alive!"
Ned sounded worried. "Peter, are you guys okay?"
"Yeah- Ned, Ned, where's the Lite Brite? The glowy thingy?!"
"Don't worry, it's safe, it's in my backpack." Now he sounded frustrated.
"No-Ned, Listen, Ned-"
"You missed the Decathalon-"
"Ned, listen to me!"
"We're at the Washington Monument now, you gotta-"
There was a shifting noise on the other side of the line and suddenly Liz's voice rang through the phone. "Peter, is that you?"
"Oh, Hey Liz!" Peter dodged between a few cars that stopped short, one who beeped at him. He didn't have time to apologize.
"Is that Liz?"
"Liz, put Ned back on the phone!"
"You should tell her how you feel."
Over the comms, Peter heard Katya snort. "Is she serious?"
"You flake!" Liz chastised, her voice stern. "You are so lucky we won. You know, I want to be mad but I'm more worried, like, what is going on with you?"
Peter was now sprinting down the lawn. "Liz, I need to talk to Ned, it's really important."
Vaguely in the background he could hear a male's voice, "Miss, all items on the belt please."
"There's something in the backpack that's really dangerous-" Peter was running out of breath- "Don't let it go through an x-ray-!"
There was a beep on the other end of the line as the call dropped. "Liz? LIz? Dammit!"
He'd finally reached the base, Katya hot on his heels, when cracks suddenly began to form in the top portion of the Washington Monument.
"No no no no no- Karen, what's going on up there?"
"The Chitauri core has detonated and caused severe structural damage." Some of the bricks at the top of the Monument began to crumble, and people started screaming.
"My friends are up there!" Michelle cried, shielding her eyes from the sun to look up at the commotion. Peter stalled momentarily. "Er, don't worry Miss, everything's going to be fine."
He glanced over at Katya, as if she could give him a solution. She touched her ear, reassuring him they'd still be connected, and pointed to the Monument. There was no time. "Go!"
Peter sprinted through the throngs of now panicking people, excusing himself along the way as best he could. "Excuse me, excuse me- " he looked up at the monument which, from up close, seemed so much higher than he'd realized. "Oh my god that's tall."
He took a flying leap towards it, landing about a quarter of the way up and scrambled higher, all the while trying to block out the panicked yelps that were coming from down below, which were doing nothing for his flying heart rate.
"Estimating ten minutes before catastrophic failure." Karen told him. Peter leapt up another chunk of the wall..
"The occupants are in imminent mortal danger."
Peter shot a couple of webs towards the top, which he was high enough to reach now, and flung himself onto the pyramidal portion.. "I"m going as fast as I can!"
"You now have 125 seconds until catastrophic failure."
"What?! Why?!" In his haste, he was beginning to slip a little.
"Unexpected motion has caused the deterioration to escalate."
"How to do I get in there?!"
"Activating reconnaissance drone." The spider from his chestplate detached and became a small, spider-shaped drone, who's cameras overlayed with Peter's interface.
"Locating optimal entry point- proceed to southwest window."
"All right, I'm on my way-" He flung himself around the corner of the monument, clambering to the window that the drone was showing him. Almost there-
He flung himself the last few feet, managing to adhere himself to the stone just in time. He touched the stone with his forehead, panting. Even with the adrenaline, he was exhausted.
And he was so high.
"You've reached the southwest window. Why are you hesitating?"
Peter managed to turn around so his back was to the building, the lawn splayed out below him. The people had become nothing but dots, and he could just barely make out Katya's bright blonde head from her position, standing on one of the outer benches.
"You're okay," Her voice came through the comms reassuringly. As if she could read his mind, she continued, "I know it's high. But this is what you're good at. You're just as sticky up there as you are when you're four feet off the ground." Peter took a deep breath as she continued, "you got this."
"You have also not re-installed your parachute so a fall from this height would most likely be fatal."
Katya groaned. "Shut the fuck up Karen."
"Okay," Peter muttered, more to steady himself than anything, "Okay." He lowered himself a bit and kicked at the window, but it stayed intact. He tried again, harder, leading with his heel, and still nothing. "Why is it not breaking?!"
"It's four inch ballistic glass, you'll have to create more momentum."
Shit.
Peter shot a web towards the top of the monument to use as a rope and pushed himself off with his feet, almost as if he were going to repel down, aiming at the window with both feet. Hopefullythe momentum of the downswing–
Nothing.
Okay, Peter, deep breaths. Try again.
This time a small, hairline fracture appeared where one of his heels had made contact.
The unmistakeable thwaps of helicopter propellers suddenly drowned out his thoughts, and someone was yelling at him through a megaphone. "THis is DC Metro Police, identity yourself." A loud, clanging alarm was now sounding from somewhere as well.
"My friends are in there, my friends are in there, stop!" He craned his neck to face the helicopter, which had a minifun pointed directly at him.
"Return to the ground, Immediately!" the megaphone commanded.
Through the window, Peter could just barely see the commotion inside, where the elevator's roof had essentially shattered and emergency personnel were trying to pull out the decathlon team, but every few seconds the elevator shuttered and dropped a few inches.
"Stand down!" the police continued, "Return to the ground immediately."
But that would be *counterproductive*, dammit- instead, Peter clambered higher, now at the peak of the Washington Monument. He had an idea, but…
"I'm gonna die." He muttered to himself, before flinging himself off the top, using his web wings to fly over the helicopter entirely, before shooting a web onto the helicopter's landing gear and using that to swing towards the southwest window.
This time it shattered on contact and he made it inside. Glass splattered everywhere, and everyone shrieked as he slid across the marble floor, just as the elevator lost connection to the rigging entirely. He managed to shoot enough web to grab it, but the momentum of the falling elevator pulled him down with it, and he quickly had to brace himself against what was left of the elevator doors to avoid tumbling down the shaft himself. He strained to keep them steady.
"I did it!"
"You did it?!" Katya came in through comms, "Ofiget!"
Peter guessed that last part was Russian but positive judging by her tone, but he didn't have enough time to contemplate it as what little of the elevator doors he'd managed to prop himself up by gave way, sending him tumbling down the elevator shaft. He landed on the floor of the elevator with a thud, flat on his back, winding him, which only shoved the elevator further down the shaft. He instinctively shot a web up to the ceiling of the top floor itself, catching the elevator before it could fall any further by bracing himself against the one unbroken corner. The falling stopped.
Everyone left in the elevator- Mr. Harrington, Liz, and Ned- looked at Peter. Peter looked at them. He cleared his throat. "Hey, how ya doing?" He tried not to sound like he was still swallowing his heart back down from his throat. "Don't worry, I got you."
There was a brief pause as that seemed to register with everyone before Ned started to jump in excitement. "YES!"
"Hey, hey, big guy, quit moving around!"
Ned immediately froze. "Sorry sir, so sorry."
Peter began pulling the elevator upwards, hand over hand, to the nearest landing, where emergency personnel were waiting to help them out. He could feel the web straining. It felt like hours until they were level enough with the landing that they could open the destroyed elevator doors, and Ned managed to clamber out, Mr. Harrington next. "Go, go!" Peter urged.
Liz, terrified, was still stuck in the back corner, like she'd forgotten how to move. "Go!" Peter cried. He could feel the web's adhesion weakening…
It snapped, and the elevator shot down, taking Liz with it.
Peter managed just in time to web to her hand, pulling it back in enough until he could grab the hand himself. If his heart hadn't been in his ears, and people weren't still screaming, and sirens weren't wailing from both outside and the inner security system, it might've occurred to him that he was holding Liz Toomes's hand.
But it was, and they were, so all he could focus on was pulling her up level enough with the floor that she could climb up to safety with everyone else.
Peter tried to quiet his panting. "Is everyone okay?"
The crowd behind Liz seemed to be checking to make sure, but Liz's focus was solely on Peter's masked eyes.
"This is your chance, Peter." Karen said, "Kiss her."
"Peter that is trash advice-" came in Katya.
But neither mattered because at that moment, his webbing snapped, and Peter fell down the rest of the elevator shaft to the ground below.
