Eddie felt powerless, only able to watch in horror as the shuttle headed straight for what appeared to be a full-on collision with the Manhattan Bridge. Part of him didn't want to see what was likely to happen, yet he couldn't seem to remove his gaze from peering out the window. He could feel the presence of what was likely everyone else in the room gathered there as well, but he paid them no mind, his attention solely focused on the events unfolding in front of him.
Then, it happened: the shuttle's front end plowed straight through the arches over the top of the bridge's roadways, tearing through them, even if it appeared the impact had slowed the shuttle down some. The massive metal railings and beams came crashing down towards the vehicles below as the shuttle continued its rogue course, eventually coming to rest over the top of the river. It appeared to be staying afloat, though who knew for how long.
Eddie's heart sank for a moment before he remembered that he still had a job to do. Plus, with any luck, maybe he could help if he hurried.
"Peter, we have to..."
When he turned around, he realized that Peter was already gone.
"No way," Eddie muttered as he took off, leaving the workers to figure out what the rescue situation would look like. He called out to his coworker a couple of times in the hallway, but he got no response, confirming his suspicions. He couldn't believe Peter had just left him in the middle of a big story like this AGAIN. It didn't make any sense; his friend and coworker had no reason to leave him behind, as they weren't even competing for a byline, since Peter was simply the photographer. Sure, it could just be that he had a bad habit of getting caught up in needing to cover the stories that they worked on together, but they had talked about this kind of thing repeatedly, so surely that wasn't it anymore.
Whatever was going on with Peter, Eddie just knew that he needed to hurry.
Peter scrambled up his latest web, desperately trying to move faster. He'd left before the collision, but he'd managed to step outside the base just in time to hear the impact of it. Reports were already coming in over the police scanner in his earpiece; even though no one had arrived on the scene yet, it dominated the talk as all possible emergency responders were being called upon to try and handle the situation.
Eventually arriving where he could finally observe the damage, Peter could feel his eyes open wide in reaction to the devastation. Many of the beams and railings had been torn off from the shuttle's impact, with a lot of debris now littering the streets beneath. Ahead of the disaster was the shuttle itself, resting on top of the water. He'd nearly forgotten that space programs regularly practiced water landings in the event of such an emergency.
As he drew nearer to the scene, Peter realized that he would have to make a choice regarding who he helped first: John and his cohort in the shuttle or the people on the bridge. There were a lot more people that were likely to need his help in the latter's case, but he couldn't get the screams out of his head from John's last transmission, the horror in his tone. Whatever had happened onboard that shuttle, it had caused all of this in the first place, and who knew how much any amount of time wasted in rescuing them would affect their chances of survival...assuming they weren't already lost.
Shaking his head to try and keep his mind from going too far down this line of thinking, Peter made his way to the bridge, opting to start there since it was closer. As he began to swing over it, he saw no shortage of people that needed help, with several individuals desperately trying to waive him down. Dropping to the ground, he first helped an older man out of car whose backside had been crushed by one of the beams, pinning him inside. He then passed him onto a couple of other people as emergency vehicles began arriving on the scene.
Peter then hurried along, trying to help as many people as quickly as possible. Occasionally, he would come across circumstances where someone was clearly already gone, but he forced himself to move on. Some situations he could move and operate on quickly, while other scenarios required a slow and steady kind of approach. He was soon aided by some of the emergency workers that had arrived on the scene, and he encouraged anyone that appeared unhurt to help as well, and soon the collective effort had grown quite large.
"Alright," Peter said at one point as he handed off the latest injured civilian to an emergency worker. "I'm going to head to the shuttle."
The responder only nodded lightly before turning his attention to the injured party, so Peter turned and leapt closer to the far side of the bridge. Firing a couple of webs at some of the railings that were still standing, he backed up, tugging at the web lines as hard as he could. Once he felt that he had built up enough tension, he relaxed while still maintaining his grip, the web lines sending him flying off the bridge and over the river. Somersaulting in the air, he then stretched back out, finally coming in for a graceful landing near the top side of the shuttle's front end.
Crawling along toward the side, Peter eventually found where the entrance was. Webbing it, he tugged hard, tearing it from its hinges and allowing him to slip inside. Immediately he could tell that whatever had happened inside of the thing hadn't been pretty; there was very little lighting and the indentations that had been visible on the outside of the shuttle from the collision with the bridge made it somewhat narrower in places.
"Hello!?" Peter called out as he tried to quickly make his way through the ship. "Colonel Jameson, are you there? Can anyone hear me!?"
Suddenly, Peter's spider sense went crazy, causing him to stop in his tracks. He looked around, but saw nothing and no one; it was dark, so it was hard to see, even for him. His sixth sense wouldn't relent though, so he knew someone, or something, had to be nearby. His mind suddenly recalled his conversation with Eddie, where his coworker shared this theory that the big bosses back at the base were trying to keep from them that the crew had brought back some kind of extraterrestrial. Despite not being inherently closed off to the possibility, Peter had still been hesitant to jump on board fully with his friend's suspicions.
His current situation, on the other hand, seemed to be giving him reason to reconsider.
Peter continued to advance despite the alarm going off in his head; he had to get to Colonel Jameson and anyone else on board, despite whatever threat may also be on board. At one point, his spider sense went off much more intensely than before, once more causing him to hesitate to proceed. He stepped back for a moment and looked down, appearing to see nothing, just like before.
What was going on?
"Hello?" he called out, figuring that, if anything was there and somehow still didn't know about him being there, he might as well get it over with. There weren't exactly many places to hide on board anyway, and Peter thought it would be better for him to be the target rather than the shuttle's crew...if they were even still alive.
"Hello?" a voice called out from ahead. "Is someone there?"
The situation now more pressing than before, Peter opted to rush in, hoping that somehow this wasn't some elaborate trap by an alien who could mimic a human's voice or something. He ran to the front, where he found one of the pilots on his knees and seemingly trying to wake the other, who was unconscious on the ground. The one on his knees turned and saw Peter, who hurried to the side of the one on the ground.
"He's unconscious," the awake and alert one spat out in between heavy breaths, apparently still in a bit of a panic mode. "That stuff, it just..."
"Hey, hey!" Peter called out, grabbing onto the man's shoulder, drawing his focus towards his mask. "Are you hurt?"
Still trying to compose his breathing, the man shook his head.
"No; I'm a little sore, but I don't think it's anything serious."
"Okay," Peter replied. "Well, in any case, I need to get you guys out of here so the emergency people can look at you, just to be sure. I can carry your friend; do you think you can walk?"
The astronaut nodded again, but as Peter took the unconscious man in his arms and rose to his feet, the other one grabbed him by the arm, his eyes once again wide with panic.
"Be careful," he warned. "It attacked us."
Now Peter found himself a mix of worried and genuinely curious.
"What attacked you?" he asked.
"The ooze," the man replied. "The black ooze."
Peter stared at the man for a moment before slowly peering back into the dark path he'd come through originally. The black ooze...could it be the same kind Peter-2 had mentioned encountering on his world? More importantly, was that what his spider sense had tried to warn him about? Also, now that he thought about it, his spider sense had stopped going off almost as soon as he'd taken off to follow the voice of the man...
Quickly lifting each foot up one at a time so he could see the bottom, Peter checked to ensure he hadn't stepped on any such ooze or goo. He found nothing though, which was relieving but also terrifying, because that meant that this stuff was likely still out there.
"Stay behind me," he instructed. The man did as he was told, and they made their way through the shuttle quickly but carefully. To his surprise, Peter's spider sense never went off, not even so much as a tiny little buzz in his brain. Perhaps the man had been exaggerating, or something that happened out in space had caused his imagination to run wild?
But his spider sense HAD gone off before though...
Soon enough, they arrived at the entrance. By now, a couple of boats filled with emergency crews were nearing the shuttle. He helped get the unconscious astronaut down to them first, the other guy starting to get a little jumpy again as he waited his turn. Finally, Peter turned to him, lowering him down to the second crew, seemingly relieving the man's anxiety somewhat.
Once they were taken care of, Peter made his way back into the shuttle to check for the supposed "ooze," moving carefully to see if his spider sense would go off again. It never did though, even after a good thorough search of the ship. Eventually, some workers came to survey the damage the shuttle had taken, so Peter opted to take his leave, still puzzled by the question in his head.
Had there or had there not been an alien on that shuttle?
Peter felt a tap on his shoulder as he took his latest picture, and he didn't need any sixth sense to guess who it was. He practically held his breath as he turned around to find Eddie, whose expression cemented the fact that this was not likely to be a pleasant conversation.
"Look man, I can explain," he said, trying to get ahead of the matter.
"Explain what, Peter?" Eddie asked. "Why does this keep happening? This isn't the first time that you bailed on me like this."
Peter sucked in some air, already feeling how far he was falling behind in the conversation.
"I know man, and I'm sorry," he replied. "I just...I don't know, I just wanted to help out somehow I guess."
"How'd that go for you?" Eddie asked.
"Not well," Peter replied sheepishly, his answer a half-truth at best.
Eddie put his hands to his hips, his head rolling to the side for a moment.
"You know that I get having journalistic fervor, but this has to stop," Eddie said. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to get to a story quickly, but just leaving me in the dust without thinking isn't okay."
"I know, and I'm sorry," Peter replied. He wanted so badly to say that it wouldn't happen again; the words were right there on his lips, but he just couldn't bring himself to say them. He knew that it was a promise he could never keep.
One of the emergency responders then came up to the two of them. Peter recognized him as a contact of Eddie's; apparently, they had been friends since high school.
"How's it looking, Dan?" Eddie asked.
"Pretty rough," his friend/contact replied. "Everyone that can be helped is getting it right now, but we're estimating that at least fifteen died during the initial collision that caused the railings to collapse."
Peter's heart sank hearing that. Fifteen people that wouldn't be able to go home to friends and loved ones. Eddie had some further conversation with his contact, but all his mind could dwell on was those who lost their lives in the accident.
"Peter."
He finally snapped back to Eddie, realizing that his friend was trying to get his attention.
"I think we've got all we need here. What do you say we call it a night and get a cab?"
"Oh, uh," Peter stammered. "I think I'll stick around for a little bit; make sure I get all the pictures I need."
Eddie nodded lightly before turning and heading the other way. Peter turned back and took some more pictures, but as soon as he could tell his coworker had left, he exited the scene as well, walking for a while before finally finding somewhere to change into his Spider-Man suit again. He needed to clear his head and swinging often did the trick. He wasn't sure how much that would be true tonight, but he figured there would be nothing wrong with giving it a go.
As its new host swung up into the air, the creature finally allowed itself to stretch. It had been laying quietly, hiding in plain sight on the underside of the human's right foot, disguised as the same color and overall appearance of the cloth it clung to. It couldn't fully takeover this being, not yet. The other human had warned him about it; plus, even in the limited way it was bonded to its latest host, it had already ascertained certain information from it, including that it had been warned about its kind even before tonight. On top of that, the being had almost seemed to have a sense, an awareness of its presence prior to the bonding. Had it not become distracted by its need to help the others, it might have managed to avoid the creature.
Therefore, it would have to be careful before finally revealing itself to the unsuspecting being. If its presence were unveiled right away, the man would likely reject it immediately. That was why, as it carefully slithered along the outer garments of its new host, it altered its coloring to match those of the costume it was overtaking. It even matched the lined pattern throughout most parts of it and, as it finally came to and overtook the head, fashioned itself to match the eye pieces, so that its new host would be completely unaware of its presence.
With the initial bonding process complete, all the creature could do now was wait. It would hide in plain sight, studying its host, getting to know its every secret, its deepest desires and fears, and then it would prove how it could help to alleviate those things, how it could grant its host everything that they ever wanted.
It would show them that they wouldn't need anything, or anyone else, ever again.
Uh oh...
Thanks again for all the support!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God." Psalm 14:2
