Music spilled out of the gym's doors as Peter opened them, and he scanned the room. Between the dancing teenagers he spotted Ned in a cream suit and that hat he liked so much, and Katya in a strapless jewel-green dress, talking to each other- Ned spotted Peter, so Katya turned too, and they both waved, along with some of the Decathlon teammates that were nearby. On the other side of the gym Liz was waiting, near her friends, but clearly watching out for him as they made eye contact immediately. Peter's stomach sunk. He hated what he was about to do.
"What did he say to you?" she said, her tone teasing.
I'll give you one chance.
So much of Peter wanted to take that chance- truly- would love to just stay here and sway in that awkward way May said would pass as dancing, though just barely, with his friends and have a good night. To stay the Peter Parker he'd been the last week or so, without the suit, who was actually a normal one Mr. Stark clearly thought he should stay.
But he couldn't let the Vulture- because that's what he was, really,the way he picked apart scraps and took them for his own- get away.
"I'm so sorry." Peter blurted out, "You deserve better than this." Liz's face fell in confusion, but Peter was already craning his neck over her shoulder, looking for Katya. They made eye contact and Peter quickly touched his ear- even though they'd lost their comms, He knew she'd know what he meant, and she nodded almost imperceptibly , disappearing into the crowd. Peter turned back to Liz one more time, who looked more shocked than anything. "I"m sorry."
And with that, he sprinted out of the gym.
He met Katya in the hallway and the two of them flew towards the parking lot without so much as a greeting.
"The Winged Man is Liz's dad-" Peter filled Katya in as they ran, "And he said he's headed out of town tonight, I think that means another heist-"Peter pulled off his tie, ditching his suit's jacket next.
"Okay, and do you know where he's going?" She skittered to a stop as Peter did, in front of the row of lockers that held his own. Instead of opening his up, he bent down and lifted up the entire unit, where he kept spare cans of web fluid and the original spiderman suit he'd made for himself- pre-Tony Stark- for emergencies. And this was just one such emergency.
He glanced around wildly for an empty room and checked the nearest one, the history classroom- unlocked, thank god. "I"ll be right back-"
"Wait!" Katya tossed something small and translucent towards him, which he caught with ease. He looked down at it- another comms piece.
"Where-?"
She shooed him into the room. "Hurry!"
Peter ducked into the room and shoved the earpiece in his ear. "Where did you get these?!" He kicked off one leg of his dress pants, hopping slightly on his other foot to get off the other. "I thought Mr. Stark-"
"It's moving day, things were chaos, so I just grabbed another pair. I'm sure he won't miss them."
Peter grinned to himself, slipping on the original Spiderman Sweatsuit and ran back out the door, ditching his clothes where they lay.
He met back up with her in the hallway and they resumed their run to the parking lot- for some reason, Katya had the same steel-toed doc martens she always wore on, but he didn't question it. It was lucky she did.
They made it out the back double doors when Katya put an arm out, nearly clotheslining him in the chest.
"What are you doing? We gotta-"
"Shh!" She shushed him, her eyes darting around the parking lot in that calculative manner she had. "Someone else is here."
"It's probably just some students-" he pushed back her arm and continued to run, "It's not like-"
He was thrown to the side suddenly as electricity arrested his body, smashing him into one of the parked school buses. Pain exploded on the side of his head where he'd been struck, and he landed, tumbling, on the asphalt, his webshooters skittering across the parking lot.
In front of him stood the Winged Man's associate, with the taser gauntlet on full blast. Peter groaned, and began to push himself off the ground.
"He gave you a choice…" The man said, walking closer to him. "You chose wrong."
Peter glanced over the man's shoulder at where he'd left Katya, but she was gone.
"What's with the crappy costume?" The man teased, before charging the taser gauntlet again. Peter could see, out of the corner of his eye, one of his web shooters laying on the ground. He just had to get to it before-
The man punched the nearest school bus, sending it careening in Peter's direction. It smacked straight into him, and threw him into another- how many school buses were in this parking lot?!
Crap, he'd landed on his leg wrong, and was having a hard time getting up. "Why-" he addressed the man, who was just nearing him again, as he pulled his weight up as best he could "Did he send you here?"
"I guess you'll never find out." The man raised his arm again, but this time the gauntlet was caught in a splatter of webbing. Peter stood up, following the length of the web over to-
Ned! Who looked absolutely terrified, but had somehow managed to pick up one of the web shooters. "Nice shot!" Peter called over, catching the web shooter Ned had tossed him like it was an active grenade and casually blasting enough webbing at the guy with the gauntlet to adhere him to the nearest school bus. Ned grinned.
There wasn't time to celebrate however, and Peter had no idea where Katya'd gone "Ned, the guy with the wings is Liz's dad!"
"What?!"
"I know! I gotta tell Mr. Stark, Call Happy Hogan, he's Mr. Stark's head of security, and find a computer and track my phone for me."
"Are you gonna be okay?!"
"Hurry!" Peter pleaded, webbing himself to the nearest streetlamp, "We gotta catch him before he leaves town!"
He webbed himself to another streetlamp across the street before perching atop it, scanning the scene in front of him for any signs of Katya. "Myshka, copy, where'd you go?"
"Look up."
He did, and from the nearest building's fire escape Katya was perched herself, his other web shooter in her hands. She tossed it towards him and he caught it easily, pushing it into place in his suit.
"Okay, I filled Ned in, '' he told her through the earpiece, even though they were looking at each other. People were still probably in the building, so shouting wouldn't do. "He's tracking my phone, which I left in Liz's Dad's car. We gotta find a way to get to it, quickly, and then- hold on."
Peter stood from his position atop the street light and watched as a very familiar sports car sped down the street. Perfect.
Peter timed it so that when he leapt down it was on the hood of Flash's car, causing both him and his date to scream. "Flash, I need your car and your phone." He said in as low and raspy a voice as he could muster. He hoped it was convincing.
"Er, technically this is my dad's car, sir, so I can't-"
Peter leapt inside of the convertible onto the center console and used his feet to push Flash out of the car. Luckily, the phone was on the dash, and Peter pocketed it before Flash could realize he'd left it. "Myshka, meet me around the corner of the block, I'll pick you up."
Leaving both Flash and his date on the side of the street, Peter sped off, hitting a few trash cans along the way. This was way different than Aunt May's car, and even that he'd only ever driven in empty parking lots.
He rounded the corner but before he could screech to a halt- he was going so fast holy shit- Katya somehow managed to jump in, settling herself in the passengers seat. Peter swerved to miss a parked car, which was only a narrow success.
"We're going to do all this work and you're going to kill us with your Grand Theft Auto." Katya was teasing, of course, but her voice held that monotone droll that Mr. Stark so often used.
"I've never driven before, okay?! I'm doing my best-"
Katya rolled her eyes, "Ugh, move-" She clambered over the center console and on top of him,pushing his foot off the gas pedal and replacing it with her own, managing to somehow wedge herself between Peter and the door before pushing at him from the side, clearly trying to get him to move to the passenger seat. She took a hard right, managing to weave through the cars in the intersection whose red light they had clearly just ran, which threw him the rest of the way into the passenger seat and against the door.
"Ow-hey!"
"I've piloted a jet before, I can handle a car." she told him, weaving between their lane and oncoming traffic. The ride was no less hectic than when Peter had been driving but he had to admit, it was much more controlled. Peter took the opportunity to call Ned. He picked up.
"Go for Ned."
"Hey, can you hear me? Can you track my phone for me?"
"Yeah, but where is it?"
"I left it in the Vulture's car, can you tell me where he is? You're on speakerphone!" He set the phone on the dash between himself and Katya, putting the phone's volume all the way up.
"Okay, he just passed the Gamestop on Jackson Avenue."
Katya nodded and took the next left.
"Have you gotten through to Happy yet?!" Peter yelled into the phone, over the screeching of tires, though he couldn't tell if it was their car or someone else's.
"Yeah, and I don't think he likes you. He looked pretty busy, and there were boxes everywhere. I think he's boarding a flight, he said something about take off in nine minutes."
"Call him back and tell him Peter's with me!" Katya shouted into the phone as she swerved between lanes again. They passed the Gamestop on Jackson Avenue. "And where are the headlights on this thing? We stole Flash's car!"
"You stole Flash's car? Awesome.!"
"It IS awesome!" Peter yelled back, bracing himself against the passenger side door and center console as Katya made another wild turn. "Where's the car now?"
"Erm-" there was the squeak of a swivel chair, "He stopped in an old industrial park in Brooklyn."
"What?!" Peter cried, "That makes no sense, he said he was going out of town!"
"How are we coming on those headlights?!" Katya asked, still pressing the buttons she could see in front of her at random, which set off some windshield wipers and some fluid that splashed back at them, but no headlights.
Another squeak. "Round knob to the left of the steering wheel, turn clockwise."
Katya did so and the headlights blinked to life. "Perfect! Thank you!"
"Did you call Happy back yet?!" Peter shouted.
"He didn't answer, I think he's blocking my calls."
Katya rolled her eyes and muttered something in Russian under her breath. "He thinks just because it's moving day he-" her eyes widened and she glanced at Peter. "It's moving day!"
"It's moving day!" Peter repeated, catching on. "He's gonna rob that plane, we gotta stop him!"
Katya nodded hurriedly, swerving to avoid hitting a streetlamp she'd driven too close to when she'd taken her eyes off the road.
"Okay, slow down, you're getting close- it's on your right."
Katya scanned for the nearest right and took it, a little too hard and a little too quickly, and the car careened into a streetlamp, shattering the windshield.
Peter leapt up, dusting the glass off of his suit. "I thought you said you could handle a car!" he cried, "Are you okay?"
She was standing on the driver's seat, brushing herself off as well. She nodded. "Yeah, and the jet I piloted got shot down- I'm fine, I'm fine-" she pushed at his shoulder to turn him around, practically pushing him out of the car. "Let's go!"
Peter leapt over the still-closed door of the convertible, Katya following, and they sprinted towards the warehouse.
