A/N: Yikes, guys. I'd just like to formally apologize for how shitty my updates have been lately. I've been procrastinating the fuck out of this chapter because I've just been losing my motivation and have been having major writer's block. And when I get this way, instead of actually trying to write, I just dive nose-first into another universe and story. So, expect a new story from me to be published soon as if I didn't have enough on my plate already as it is. -_- I hate my brain sometimes.
Anyway, chapter songs are Burn The House Down by AJR and Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N' Roses for the more action-y part of the song.
Headcanon of the chapter: Jack has a weird fear of jellyfish and no one can convince him they're not Satanic spawns meant to keep him from enjoying the ocean because they are made of just water and SHOULD NOT BE ALIVE.
—
If there was one thing Danielle would've never thought she'd be doing almost two years ago; it was attending a party she helped plan. But, it all seemed to work out. There were no random college kids that showed up last time, there was no getting completely plastered (though, Liz did talk her into drinking at least one club soda and a couple cups of beer that got her slightly buzzed), and most importantly, there was no one there to tell her to cool it. And she made sure of that when she turned off her location services on her phone and texted Jack a few hours earlier that she'd be going out on patrols as Eris that night. He, of course, hadn't responded due to him always being so 'busy' and distracted as of lately. But, Danielle didn't worry about that. In fact, she didn't worry about anything because she was too busy having a good time.
The party was in full-swing almost half an hour after Danielle and Liz started greeting people at the front door. It wasn't long after that, that people started filling in the entire house; pouring themselves drinks in the kitchen, dancing in the open living room, socializing by the pool, playing drinking games out on the patio, running around in the front yard. It was wild, and a lot better than Flash's party last year.
Danielle tried to stay by Liz the entire night, a bit too scared to branch out much at first. But after Betty, Seymour, and Jason arrived, they were able to get a few drinks into both her and Liz, loosening Danielle up a bit to be able to go walk around and just have fun.
She played a game of flip-cup— it was her and Jason against Liz and Flash, and, of course, Liz and Flash won, but it didn't make the game any less fun.
After that, Danielle excused herself to go get a refill on her second cup of beer (not counting the flip-cup ones), when she ran into Michelle, Abe, and Cindy all gathered around by the kitchen island just talking and hanging out. Danielle smiled brightly as she approached. Cindy was the first to spot her. "Danielle," she beamed. Both Abe and Michelle turning towards Danielle to greet her as well.
"Hey, guys," she replied with a small wave.
"This party is awesome!" Abe shouted over the sound of whatever loud song Flash was currently that had the dancers in the living room jumping and the bass in the house shaking.
"Totally!" Cindy shouted in agreement.
Danielle laughed at the pair as they bobbed their heads to the music and laughed, while Michelle looked like she was fighting back a smile herself. She tried to act tough, but Danielle was certain she could see her foot tapping to the beat of the song. "So, where are Charles and Sally?" Danielle asked them.
"Uh, Sally had tutoring early in the morning tomorrow and wanted to head to sleep early," Cindy explained on Sally's behalf.
"And Charles?"
"We don't know," Abe replied with a shrug.
"His parents wouldn't let him come," Michelle explained to them blandly.
"Oh," was all Danielle answered with. "Well, I'm glad you came," she told her truthfully.
"I'm not actually here," Michelle said as she jumped off from her place on the island counter to walk over to Liz's pantry, pulling out what looked like a loaf of bread. "Remember?" Michelle turned to Danielle and gave her a sly wink before walking across the kitchen to where the toaster was.
Danielle merely smiled to herself at her friend's antics before turning back to Cindy and Abe. "Can I get you guys anything to drink? Liz has a keg out back, there are a few canned beers in the fridge, rum at the bar in the basement, club sodas in the living room. Uh, I think a senior brought jell-o shots and has them in the front yard..."
Cindy shook her head. "We're good. We don't really drink," she explained.
Abe nodded beside her. "Especially not on school nights," he added.
Danielle shrugged. "Well, I'm going to get a refill," she told them as she walked around the island towards where the smaller keg was on the kitchen counter. She pulled off the hose and poured herself half a cup before making her way out. "Glad you guys came. I'll catch up with you later!" She shouted, slightly slurred as she started back out into the main area of the house where she bumped into Liz.
"Woah!" Liz quickly caught her friend before she could fall over. "How many drinks have you had already?"
"Not that much," Danielle replied nonchalantly.
"Well, maybe you should stick with the sodas in the ice chest," Liz replied, taking the red solo cup of beer from out of her friend's hands and discarding it on a nearby table. "We're not trying to have a repeat of Flash's party, are we?" Simultaneously, both girls glanced over their shoulders at the DJ stand where Flash was blasting his water mark that shouted 'DJ Flash' in a deep voice followed by several horns. When they turned back to meet each other's weary gazes, they burst out in laughter.
"No, definitely not," Danielle giggled between her laughs. "Thanks for cutting me off."
"No problem. It's what friends are for, right?"
"Mhmm."
Liz smiled back at Danielle for a moment before something happened to catch her apes over Danielle's shoulder. "Look who just got here." Before Danielle could ask who, Liz grabbed both of her shoulders and spun her around to face the two people Danielle both wished and dreaded would come: Ned and Peter. In an instant, her stomach drop, her skin grew cold, and the alcohol left her body making her completely sober for a moment. If the fiasco at gym had anything to do with why they were there, Danielle was going to have a literal heart attack. But, Liz didn't seem to notice at all as she began to drag Danielle over to them with her.
"Oh my gosh," Liz gushed, catching both Ned and Peter's attention as they approached. "Hey, guys."
Peter looked wide-eyed between Liz and Elle, who grimaced and gave a small wave to him and Ned. "Hi," she greeted them, clearly tense.
"Cool hat, Ned," Liz added.
"Hi, Liz. Hey, Danielle," Ned replied, turning to his friend expectantly.
Peter, who had momentarily forgotten about everything for the one moment Liz stood before him, beaming with a smile. "Hey, Liz... Elle," he greeted, his voice rising an crave giving away just how nervous he really was. Danielle took notice but wasn't sure if it was because he was hiding something or because he was just so in love with her friend.
"I'm so happy you guys came," Liz continued to gush. "There's pizza and drinks. Help yourself. Ellie certainly has." Danielle flushed when Liz nudged her arm playfully, gesturing to the red cup in her hand still half-full.
Peter didn't take note of the way Danielle almost tripped after Liz's light shove as he glanced around the room, trying to think of a way to construe words together to make a sentence to speak to Liz. "What a great party," he eventually said with a hitch in his voice.
"Thanks." Danielle watched Liz's smile grow as she held Peter's gaze, and he held her's. Something in Danielle's stomach churned, but she wasn't sure whether it was account of the fact that this was extremely awkward and uncomfortable or just because she had drank a bit too much. She hoped it was the first option; she did not want to experience another hangover until she was at least eighteen. Especially not when she also had school tomorrow.
However, the moment between Liz and Peter was short-lived when there was a shout from across the room followed by the sound of breaking glass. Liz's eyes peeled away from Peter's to glance at where multiple football players gathered around the living room surrounding what looked like a broken vase. Danielle grimaced, as did Liz.
"Oh, my parents will kill me if anything's broken," she explained, turning towards the scene of the destruction. "I gotta..."
Peter, still a bit in awe, could only nod and reply, "Yeah."
"Have fun," Liz said over her shoulder before starting towards the scene. Danielle took a step to go after her, when Liz abruptly stopped and turned to her. "No, you go ahead and stay; I know Peter and Ned are your friends. I can handle this," she told her sincerely.
"Uh." Danielle looked between the pair of teenage boys and back at Liz. What was the harm of straying from Liz's side for one night? She hoped Peter and Ned would keep her at the level of slightly-drunk she was now and not let her go past like Liz usually did. "O-okay," she eventually mumbled before remaining in her place, watching after her friend as she left.
Danielle was so caught up in what Liz was doing, she almost didn't catch Ned's off-hand comment to Peter beneath his breath. "Dude, what are you doing? She's here— spider it up." Danielle's head did a full 180 back to the pair when she heard this.
"Um, what?"
Peter grew panicked, looking between his best friend and his other friend. "Uh. Nothing," he quickly replied to Danielle before turning back to Ned. "No, no, no, no, no. I can't– I cannot do this," he told his friend in all seriousness. "Elle's right, Spider-Man is not a party trick, okay?" Peter threw a grateful look to the slightly buzzed brunette in front of them. She blinked, holding back a burp, as she nodded with a pleased look. She was happy he was listening to her... sort of. After all, New York vigilantes were supposed to stick together, right?
"Look, I'm just gonna..." Peter shrugged. "... be myself."
Ned rolled his eyes and sighed, "Peter, no one wants that."
Peter scrunched up his face. "Dude," he said in a hurt tone at the same time Danielle threw Ned an incredulous look and scolded, "Ned!" Ned threw his hands up in mock-surrender.
Danielle rolled her eyes and shook her head at his antics before taking another sip of whatever seemed to be in her cup this time.
"What are you even drinking?" Ned asked her as Peter began to walk off somewhere.
But before Danielle could answer or Peter could get too far, the music was abruptly cut off by Flash's amplified voice that rung throughout the house from the speakers. "Penis Parker, what's up?!" He shouted into the mic, followed by sound effects of horns blaring. Danielle immediately groaned out loud, as if the situation couldn't have gotten worse. "So, where's your pal Spider-Man? Let me guess: in Canada with your imaginary girlfriend?" More horn noises, followed by other party-goers laughing at Peter and Ned's expense. "That's not Spider-Man, that's just Ned in a red shirt."
By the time the third buzzer had gone off, Danielle could already see it was too late. After just having Peter tell Ned he wasn't going to do the Spider-Man stunt, Danielle could see it in his eyes that he was determined to prove Flash and his peers wrong for once. That he was done being picked on, and called names, and bullied relentlessly. Tonight was the night he was going to change all that... And Danielle knew it was a disaster in the making.
The horn noises and laughter continued, and before Danielle knew it, Peter was suddenly storming off. "Peter!" She called after him, but he just kept walking, taking swift strides to the back door. Flash continued to make horn noises, ticking Danielle off more and more until she'd finally had enough.
The brunette turned to glare at the DJ stand, her anger flaring enough to where she could feel her powers and emotions coensiding within herself. She hadn't even meant for them to spike that much until sparks began to suddenly fly out from the cords surrounding the booth, cutting off the sound from Flash's mic and momentarily shutting down his sound panel. Flash ducked for cover, as did the other party-goers, giving Danielle the opportunity to run after Peter. "Hold this," she said to Ned, shoving what was left of her drink into his hand before starting after the teenage vigilante. "Peter!"
Danielle pushed through the crowd, through the back door, until she caught sight of a figure moving quickly across the back lawn towards the pool house. She watched the figure closely, trying to tell whether or not it was Peter. Until she watched the figure jump up the wall and onto the roof ease, completely giving away the wall-climbing teenager. The brunette sighed in relief before following after him. She went around the pool, slunk into the shadows across the lawn, and stopped at the foot of the wall.
Ever since losing her power, it was harder to just conjure them up like she used to it required more concentration. Luckily, for Danielle though, she had been practicing ever since school started back up. She even had a process.
The first step in this process was to set her goal. In this case, it was to get on top of that roof. Normally, she would just teleport, but she no longer had that ability. Which left her with just launching herself up with her telekinesis. The second step was to take precautions so that her powers wouldn't flare up or get out of control or completely give out all together like a TV cutting in and out of signal– it had happened before. Danielle closed her eyes and focused on building up her invisible forced within herself, and since she would be pushing upwards to the roof, she began to push the initial force to her hands. And finally, the third step, once it was built up, she pushed her hands and the power within them to the ground, which in turn, launched her up into the sky, over the wall, and onto the roof beside Peter with a small 'thud'.
Peter, who was already dressed in his Spider-Man suit (save for the mask) jumped slightly at her sudden appearance. Danielle straightened herself and gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
Peter shook his head. "No, it's not that. It's just... I'm not really used to seeing you actually use your powers and stuff in person... Well, besides the small stuff you do here and there. But, this is..."
Danielle chuckled lightly. "Yeah. Launching myself like a human catapult isn't exactly 'small'." Peter looked like he wanted to laugh, but Danielle caught his eyes flickering back down to the party down below, a frown crossing his features as his fists gripped tightly to the mask in his hands. Danielle sighed.
"Peter." He turned to face her as she spoke. "I get that you're upset... With-with Flash and everyone else down there, but-"
"No, Elle, you don't get it," Peter cut her off sharply. "You haven't been here all this time when stuff like that–" he jerked a finger down at the party below. "–has been happening for years. I'm just..." Peter's jaw clenched as his hands ran through his hair. "I'm sick and tired of always being the loser, Peter Parker, when I'm so much more. They just don't get it-"
Boom!
Both Danielle and Peter's attention quickly turned towards where the sound of a distance explosion rang out through the air. They both walked towards the edge of the pool house to try and get a better look at the bright blue explosion pluming through the sky. It wasn't like anything either had seen before.
"What the Hell?" Peter asked out loud.
The pair seemed to be thinking the same thing when Peter abruptly turned towards Danielle and asked, "Do you have a suit on you?" She was already holding up two dark objects in her hands. They looked a bit like odd shaped magnets, but the teen was shocked to see his friend suddenly placing one on her abdomen and watching as a suit completely wrapped around her body within seconds. He recognized the navy blue armored catsuit as the one he'd seen Eris wear on the news and the one Danielle had worn to the airport when they'd fought. "Woah..."
Danielle spared him a small smirk as she placed the second magnet-looking thing behind her ear, pressing a button for the mask part of the suit to cover half of her face.
"That's awesome," Peter exclaimed before his eyebrows scrunched a bit. "Wait, how come you get that awesome suit?"
Danielle shrugged. "My brother's the one who helped design both of our suits. I assume it's because he favors me over you."
"That's mean."
"Peter," Danielle scolded him, pointing towards the direction of where the explosion had come from.
"Oh, right." Peter then quickly pulled on his mask, the eyes adjusting slightly as he glanced around before turning back to Danielle. "Okay. You remember when I helped you down from that building after the fire?" He didn't wait for her answer as he awkwardly pulled her into his side with his arm wrapping around her middle. "This is going to be a bit like that." He saw her eyes widen when she quickly moved to wrap her two arms around his neck. "Hold on tight," he instructed.
Danielle watched as he shot a web from his wrist. She wasn't certain of whether or not it latched onto something or not, but before she had time to ask, Peter had suddenly launched the pair off the edge of the pool house roof and Danielle found herself flying in mid-air said she was on a bungee jump. She yelped and latched her legs around Peter's hips as they swung through the air at an alarming speed away from Liz's house, through the streets, over houses, and finally stopping to land on the ground right in front of what seemed to be a golf course.
Danielle watched as Peter flung his arm out to try and shoot a web, but deflated when the web failed to latch onto anything.
"Aw, great," she heard him mutter bitterly.
He took a step to start to run when she suddenly grabbed his wrist. He turned to her questioningly. "I have an idea," she exclaimed before breaking into a dash beside him.
"Running is your idea?" Peter shouted. "This sucks!"
"No! Just... Aim your web shooters into the sky and shoot again!"
"At what?!"
"Just do it!"
Danielle waited for him to do as instructed. He flung out his arm, shot the web, and just before it could arc and fall down again, Danielle flung her own arm out and shot her invisible force of powers to catch the web on itself. The web tightened and Peter sprung up, catching Danielle as he swung by. "Yes!" Peter shouted as the cycle of him shottng the webs and Danielle using her powers to catch them continued.
"Woohoo!"
—
It didn't take long for Spider-Man and Eris to find where the enormous blue explosions were coming from. Whoever was setting them off wasn't exactly concerned with keeping it low-key. The blue blasts could be seen for blocks, and lucky for Danielle and Peter it only took a few minutes to swing over.
After the pair had fallen into a rhythm when it came to the swinging thing, they were able to arrive at the sight of the explosions beneath an abandoned train overpass surrounded by forest. Peter swung up beside the bridge. Luckily, Spider-Man could latch his webs onto a nearby tree while he slowly set Eris down on the ground beside where the guys setting of the explosions were.
After Peter had released the web he clung to, he used his sticky hands to crawl up along the side of the bridge, a few feet above from where Danielle stood. They both looked around the overpass to see three men standing beside a car and an open van filled with what seemed to be intricate looking weapons Danielle hd never seen before in her life. Who were these guys?
"... I got just what you need, alright? I got tons of great stuff here. One sec, okay?" Danielle overheard one of the men exclaimed. He was wearing a yellow jacket and a dark colored beanie, and the teenager was able to catch that he had a beard before he turned his back towards where her and Peter watched as he began to g through the weapons in the vans, listing off names of things and weapons that had Danielle's heart racing. "I got, uh, black hole grenades, Chitauri rail guns..." she didn't get to hear the rest when the one of the other men behind him scolded, "Lettin' off shots in public now? Hurry up."
Danielle titled her head ever so slightly to try to get a better look at the men. Most of her body was hidden behind the concrete base of the overpass, but she didn't want to risk being seen by whoever these guys were because apparently 'letting off shots in public' wasn't a common occurrence for these weapons dealers and there was good chance her and Peter would never get to see them again.
She leaned in carefully as the man in dark attire with a bald head and dark skin turned towards the man who apparently was buying from them. He had beard and a perm and something about him seemed familiar to Danielle that she couldn't seem to put her finger on. "Look, times are changing and we're the only ones selling these high-tech weapons." One source. Good. Easy to track and easy to take down, Danielle noted.
"Woah," a soft whisper from above Danielle had her glancing up at Spider-Man sticking to the overpass. "This must be where the ATM robbers got their stuff."
Danielle's eyebrows creased. "The ones you told me about the other day?" She whispered back.
He nodded in response, but their attention was quickly turned back to the deal going on a few yards away when the familiar perm-guy replied, "I just need something to stick up somebody. I-I'm not trying to... shoot them back in time." Hm, pat least he had a conscious enou not to buy from these people, Danielle thought generously.
Then, the man in the beanie who was still going through whatever was in the back of their van spoke up again, "... I got anti-grav climbers."
"Yo, climbers?" That seemed to peak Perm-Guy's interests, much to the teenage vigilante's dismay. But, why did that man seem so familiar to her, she still couldn't put her finger on it–
"Yoddledy, Yoddledy, Yoddledy-"
Danielle's head whipped up to look at Peter as he fumbled with his phone that the obnoxious ringtone was coming from. It echoed through the overpass and caught the dealers' attention. "Peter!" She hissed up at him as he tried to turn it off.
"I'm sorry!" He whispered back.
Danielle turned back to the three men a few yards away, hoping they would pass off the sound as something other than two teenage vigilantes busting their deal. But, unfortunately it didn't go that way. It actually got a lot worse when the bald guy pulled a gun off his holster and aimed it at Perm-Guy. "Did you set us up?"
Danielle felt her skin go cold at the sight of Perm-Guy holding his hands up in surrender. He looked terrified. Danielle felt terrified. What was she going to do? She had to do something! But what? That guy was going to shoot an innocent person because of her and Peter. But she also couldn't let them know she was there, that would blow their cover and the dealers could get away–
"Wait!" The brunette vigilante shouted, slightly muffled through her gold-chrome mask, but it didn't hide the clear fear in her voice as she stepped from behind her cover of the concrete wall to step out into the open, her hands in the air in an act of surrender. The three men turned to her, their gazes all showing signs of confusion, aggression, and nervousness.
Danielle noted the gun still pointed at Perm-Guy, his eyes flashing in recognition as he stared at her. So she did know him. Nice to know she was saving someone familiar. Her heart still clenched at the sight of him in danger and she realized she didn't just step out into the open for nothing. "Don't shoot him, shoot me," she told the armed dealers calmly, not even thinking before the words left her mouth. She realized she was in deep shit for uttering them when the man who had the gun smirked slightly as he replied, "'Aight."
It all felt like it was happening in slow motion as the bald man abruptly turned the gun on her, read to shoot. Mentally, the teen was preparing herself to deflect the bullet, but she knew it was a lost cause. She could barely launch herself into the sky without getting a bad headache like the one she had now that got worse with each use of her powers. But, she also wasn't ready to die. She had to deflect this bullet. She had to.
Her fists were clenched at her sides and her eyes were focused on the gun, waiting for the shot to be fired. But, just as soon as the gun was trained on her, a figure in red and blue spanks fell down a foot in front of Danielle, his arm shooting out to wrap the gun up in web and rip it away in two swift motions. One thing ran in her mind as Danielle finally released the breath she had been holding in: thank you, Peter Parker.
She didn't exactly have time to actually thank him out loud because once the gun was ripped from the bald guy's hands, the three men went running their separate directions. Danielle watched as Perm-Guy ran towards his car while Peter ran after the dealers racing towards their van. Danielle took a step to go grab Perm-Guy when a flash of blue and an explosion rippled from the back of the van. When the brunette looked over, she barely had time to react as Spider-Man was forcefully thrown into her, knocking them both into the concrete wall of the overpass.
"Mm," Danielle moaned after she forcefully hit the ground beside Peter. Her back hurt, her front hurt, her head hurt, her everything hurt. God, why did she have to leave the party with Liz? why did she have to drink so much at the party? Danielle could definitely feel all the alcohol in her stomach threatening to pour over out of her mouth.
"What was that?" Peter mumbled.
Danielle lifted her head to answer when she noticed that Perm-Guys car and the Dealers' van was driving away. "Peter– the van!" She shouted, ignoring the soreness in her body as she pushed herself back to her feet, chasing after the vehicle with the dealers and weapons in it. She knew Peter was close on her tail when she saw a web shoot out from behind her and latch onto the two open van doors. Good idea, she thought to herself as she used her running momentum and her powers to launch herself up into the air.
"Crap!" she shouted when she went a bit too high into the air. She had been aiming for the open van, but instead landing face-first onto the van's cold, hard roof with a thud and hiss of pain. Wow, it had been a long time since she'd seen action this intense. "Wo-woah!" Danielle cried as the van made a swift turn to the left onto a neighborhood street, her petite body swinging with it. She nearly fell, but quickly grabbed onto the edge and kicked her feet on the side until she caught her balance again on the roof. "Phew," she whispered to herself as a quick celebration of the minor victory of not totally falling to her death on the side of the van.
However, it was a short lived victory when she heard the loud cries of, "Wah!" crash, "Oh!" Danielle spun around to face the back of the clan, finding Spider-Man being dragged around through the streets as he clung onto the web he had attached to the back of the van for dear life. Luckily, he was smart enough to shoot a second web onto the van, allowing him to drag on only his feet and not as a flailing body on the asphalt. But, then that failed too and he was back to being the latter once again.
"Dangit!" Danielle cursed herself as she pushed herself onto the edge of the van's roof, her hand reaching out to the web-slinging vigilante as he tumbled around on the ground a few feet away. "Spider-Man, grab on!" She urged him, her fingers that held onto the van tightening as it made another tight turn to the right.
The web-slinger saw an opportunity in Eris's outstretched hand and quickly readied his webs to latching onto it. But, something felt wrong. His body broke out into a shiver that went down his spine and through his body, warning him that something was coming. Something bad. His eyes darted down to a glowing magenta light past Eris inside the van where one of the men inside readied one of the weapons... and was aiming it straight at Eris. "Look out!" He shouted up at her.
Danielle's eyes darted away from Spider-Man to where he was pointing inside the van. She looked in and found the magenta-lit barrel of a high-tech weapon looking right back at her. "Shi-" her curse didn't get to finish as she threw herself back over the edge onto the roof just before a large shot was fired off where she once was hanging from. Danielle fumbled a bit on the moving roof, but caught herself once again on her stomach. She had to swallow back some barf that threatened to be thrown up due to all this moving and jumping and scrambling. God, she will never drink alcohol again.
Danielle pushes herself up the roof towards the back again, only to hear the sound of something powering up. Danielle's eyes widen as she realizes its the gun again. It takes only a second for her to roll out of the way as the explosion shoots up through the roof where she had been laying. She dodges the shot, but she falls off the edge of the roof. A surprised scream escapes Danielle's throat as she falls off the roof, only to grasp tightly to the edge by her fingertips. "GAH!" She cries out as she struggles to climb back up.
Come on, tells herself. You can do it!
He brunette closes her eyes, not focusing on the ringing in her ears from almost being killed by a weird explosive gun, or the way she is dangling off the edge of a speeding van, or the fact that she feels as though she is going to throw up. But instead, she focuses on her situation. She is hanging on by her finger tips, yes, but her legs are perfectly capable of climbing... or jumping. Danielle takes that idea and runs with it.
With effort, she brings her feet to plant themselves into position. One leg stretched out with her foot pressed onto the side, and the other leg pulled up to her chest, the balm of her foot pressed completely up against the van. She counts to three in her head before pushing off the side, throwing herself over the edge and back onto the roof with a, "Oomph!"
If it weren't for the fact that her friend was getting shot at while being dragged behind a speeding van, Danielle would've laughed. But, because of these circumstances she quickly pushed herself onto her knees and glanced over the edge of the roof into the van to see the edge of the gun peeking out beneath her. Danielle focused her strength on her powers, one hand positioned on one side of her body, the other in position facing parrellel to it. Her powers mimicked this potion, and when Danielle pushed in with one hand, while the other remained put, the high-tech gun broke apart. One part of it falling onto the street, the other toppling into a nearby yard as they made a turn over a bump, knocking Danielle back onto her butt with a yelp. She really needed to stop this van.
The vigilante crept slowly towards the edge once again after a few bumps and turns only to find that Spider-Man (along with both the van's back doors) were gone. Where had they–
"Eris!" The sound of Peter's voice caught Danielle's attention and when she glanced up to look for where he was, she found him a few yards back standing beside a trail of tipped over trash bins and a broken brick mailbox. His figure slowly growing smaller as the van sped further away. Danielle threw him a look from over her mask that asked him silently 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!', but she didn't get much of an answer when he disappeared through a yard.
"Urgh!" Danielle groaned as the van hit another bump, dropping her onto the roof again, grasping on for dear life as the van swing to the left again. God, where were the police when you needed them?
Suddenly, something shot out from beneath Danielle, nearly piercing through one of her fingers. Upon closer inspection, the hole seemed to have come from a bullet. They were shooting at her. Holy crap, they were shooting at her again!
Another shot rang out, and this time Danielle had almost gotten hit in the head if it weren't for the fact that she had slipped down to the front of the van, rolls down to the front window. Inside, she saw the bald man driving, swirling the van trying to get her off the windshield, and the man with the beanie spinning around to aim the gun at her. Danielle's heart leapt up to her throat and within a split second, she jumped back up onto the roof, the sounds of the gunshot followed by the windshield glass breaking echoing behind her as she slid to a halt at the back of the van again. She had to stop this car.
With all the strength she had on this moving monster, Danielle used the grip on the back edge to push her over and swing inside. She swung inside with her legs out, successfully kicking the Beanie-Guy down and knocking the gun from his hands. She used the opportunity to grab it and quickly throw it out of the van. "You little brat!" The Beanie-Guy screamed before charging at her in the back of the speeding van. Danielle raised her arm up to block the man's sloppy punch, holding his forearm up as she threw her own punch to his stomach. This caused him to bellow over, allowing Danielle an opening to grab both his shoulders and shove him back to the ground.
But she couldn't stop there because as soon as he was down, Danielle caught sight of yet another gun pointed at her in her peripheral vision. She gasped before the van spun to the right, making her lose her balance and fall into the van's wall just as the Bald Guy in the front seat fired a shot at her, missing. Danielle groaned, clutching her elbow. She looked up at the Bald Guy in the front seat with piercing gold irises. God, she hated guns.
With the flick of her wrist, the pistol came flying out of his hands and out the back of the van once again. As soon as she had disarmed him, Danielle pushed herself into the front seats of the car, grabbing onto the steering wheel as she tried to maneuver the car into either a pole or an empty field to get it to stop, but Bald Guy kept shoving her aside and swirling the car right back onto the road. In the process of their struggle, the van hit a few parked cars, trash cans, and even a mailbox. This continued until Bald Guy hit a curb, the impact causing Danielle to loose her footing and fall back from the front seats. She easily caught her balance again, but the small victory was, once again, short lived when something blue and glowing caught her eye to her left.
Standing up with an evil smirk on his face was Beanie Guy, and this time he was holding a gauntlet with a glowing plate on his knuckles. Danielle barely had time to throw her hands up in front of her face when Beanie Guy punched her stomach with the gauntlet, the explosion of impact sending her flying out the back of the van and rolling on the asphalt of the street. "Mm," she moaned once her body came to a stop. Her everything hurt once again and she was pretty sure she sprained a wrist and maybe bruised a few bones... or every bone in her body.
Slowly, Danielle glanced up to find the van still speeding away. She had to stop it. She couldn't let them get away. And despite every nerve and bone and muscle in her body begging her not to, Danielle pushed herself back onto her feet and used the adrenaline to bring her body into a sprint after the van. She brought her hands above her head, pushing the strength of her mind and powers into them, ready to launch herself again, when something red and blue came into view from the roof of a house. Spider-Man.
Danielle watched him jump towards the van, only feet away from landing when the unthinkable happened. The brunette gasped as she watched a dark-winged figure dive towards the web-slinger, catching him up in what looked like giant metallic talons and swooping back up into the air. "Spider-Man!" Danielle screamed as she launched herself up, completely forgetting about the van and aiming for Spider-Man. She was mere inches from him and winged-guy as she flew into the air, her arm reaching out for him to grab. On instinct, Peter shot his arm out, a web latching onto Danielle's hand. This proved to be a mistake when suddenly she too was being pulled up into the sky by this winged demon zooming through the air.
"Oh my God!" Danielle screeched as she held onto the web attached to her hand for dear life, hoping and praying to any higher power that A) this Winged Guy wouldn't drop her and Peter, and B) the web wouldn't snap nd drop her to her death. But it didn't look very good for either option as the Winged Guy kept flying higher and higher, the air flying through Danielle's hair whipping it all around her face as she desperately tried to search for any way out of this, her own cries of panic intertwining with Peter's as they just kept going higher and higher. Eventually, Danielle accidently peered down below her only to find the sigh horrendous. Below her, thousands of lights hundreds of feet beneath her lit up the ground. She was high up, she was really really high up. She immediately regretted looking down as she tried to calm her nerves. Oh dear God, she was going to die.
The thought of death kept picking at her thoughts the higher they got until eventually something in Peter's Spider-Man suit went off, launching an enormous white chute from his back, pulling him back and out of the Wnged Guy's talons, which caused him to fall directly into Danielle and then both of them falling into the released chute that did more harm than good as they fell blindly.
Their screams bouncing off of each other as they tried to reach out for something, anything to get them out of this situation. Danielle thought they would be falling forever until they eventually hit something cold, hard, and wet. Danielle and Peter suddenly found themselves sub,erred under water with a wet blanket suffocating them, keeping them from swimming back to the surface as they slowly plunged to the bottom.
Danielle struggled to see even two feet in front of her as she scratched and clawed for an opening in the chute. Her limbs and Peter's limbs hitting each other as they desperately searched for an out. Help, Danielle mentally called out as she felt herself slowly losing the air in her lungs, exhaustion beginning to creep up on her as her frantic move,ends grew less and less. Somebody... help.
It was all dark and suffocating... Until it wasn't.
—
Fresh air hit Danielle like a freight train. And it wasn't just regular air filling her lungs, it was actual blowing air, smacking her in the face that woke her up from her unconscious state she hadn't even known she slipped into. Her wide, panicked eyes frantically looked around at what saved her from drowning, and what she found was surprisingly shocking.
A metal arm was wrapped around her middle and when she looked to her rift she found one was wrapped around Spider-Man's middle too. And up above them was a glowing blue arc reactor attached to none other than the Iron Man himself, Tony Stark. The air that was hitting Danielle was the air in the sky from how fast Tony was flying them away from the lake and towards land that just happened to be a small playground.
When the Iron Man suit came to a halt just above the jungle gym, Danielle clung the Earth below as if it was a lifeline. Her heavy breathing slowing down as she pressed a finger to the earpiece she wore, successfully retracting the chore mask that was suffocating her under water. Once it was off, all the puke she'd been swallowing down suddenly came right back up and onto the grass beneath her. After finishing blowing chunks, Danielle threw herself to the side on her back.
She didn't care who saw her in her Eris suit with her mask off, lying flat on the ground with her wet tendrils of hair covering her face like a madman. She was exhausted, sore, and recovering from a near-death experience.
"Hey," she heard a tentative voice call to her. "You okay, Elle?" The brunette peeked an eye open to find Peter standing above her, his Spider-Man suit soaked head-to-toe and his mask dangling in his hand. She figured he probably looked a lot like she did now with her soaking wet suit and crazy wet hair.
Danielle slowly pushed herself off the grass and nodded when Peter was quick to help her. "'M fine," she murmured as he wrapped an arm around her middle and helped her walk towards the swings a few yards from where they had landed, setting her down in a swing. "Thank you."
"No problem," he told her sincerely. Danielle was finally able to get a good look at him. His face looked injury-free, but she could tell by the frightened look in his eye that the way his body was shaking wasn't just because he was cold from the water like her. He was scared, too.
Danielle opened her mouth to say something about it when another voice brought both their attentions back to the metal suit still flying a few feet above the ground still. "Nice to see the two of you have met."
Peter turned back to glance at the Iron Man suit, moving to where he was closer by the jungle gym bars. "Well, we already kind of were friends before you took me to Germany," he admitted sheepishly.
"Huh," was all Tony replied. "So, you mind explaining what happened to get the two of you stuck in your own parachute at the bottom of a lake?" The Iron Man head glancing between both Danielle and Peter, looking for answers.
Danielle watched an excited smile grace Peter's face as he jumped effortlessly onto the bars, landing at the too and taking a seat before he began to unpack the events leading up to their almost-death. "Alright. A day ago, I ran into these ATM robbers with these super high tech weapons. And there were these guys beneath a bridge and they were blowing crap up, and the explosion looked just like the ATM guys' weapons. And Elle and I saw it from the roof of the party we were at–"
Iron Man's head swerved to look at the exhausted teenage girl lightly pushing herself on the swing, her head resting along the chain. "Partying again, huh? That explains you barfing your brains out earlier. I thought we already had this talk about drinking."
Danielle grimaced. She was about ready to retort with something about being flung in the back of a van and then dropped to her death inside of a parachute she nearly drowned trying to get out of, but figured it was no good since she had been drinking that night at the party. "Sorry," she eventually muttered.
"Anyway," Peter continued. "We decided to go check it out and we got into a high-speed chase with the dealer guys, right? And they said they were, like, the only guys selling the weapons, so we decided to chase, uh, them in their van. I-I grabbed on with my webs, but, like, this guy kept shooting at us with this-this giant gun! And then I got thrown off the van and had to take– had to take a detour while Elle stayed behind and tried to stop the van. Right, Elle?"
Peter glanced over at Danielle who looked completely dead to the world. She nodded while rubbing her side with a pained expression as if she were recalling the experience through her pain. "Mhmm."
Peter made a mental note to ask if everything was alright later before turning back to his mention the metal suit to finish his recount of the story. "So, when I finally got back to the van, this guy with–with giant metal wings appeared! And he just– he just, like, swooped down like a monster and he picked Elle and I up and, uh, he took us up, like, a thousand feet and just dropped us." By the time Peter was done with telling the story, he had almost so poetry ringed all the water from his soaked mask. "How'd you find us? Did you put trackers in our suits?"
"I put everything in your suits," Tony remarked matter-of-factly. "Including these heaters." Both Peter and Danielle's suits simultaneously heated up from the inside out, warming their cold bodies and releasing a plum of steam.
"Woah. Ooh," Peter hissed while Danielle moaned with gratitude. "That's better. Thanks." He continued to clasp his hands together as his teeth chattered, while Danielle slowly rose from her place on the swings to walk to the edge of the jungle gym bars.
She didn't not notice the blue glowing eyes of the helmet glancing down at her as she slumped against the bar. "What were you thinking?" He asked. She could hear the agitation and worry in his voice. "I'd expect something outlandish and reckless from him because he's new to all of this-"
"Hey!"
"–but not you, Danielle," Tony scolded. "What do you think your brother's gonna say when he hears about this."
Danielle immediately stood up straight as her eyes widened and panic set in. "No, no, no, no, no. Please don't tell Jack," she begged him, knowing full well the minute her brother heard that she nearly got herself killed in her first outing as Eris since the the Leipzig Incident, he would take away the suit and put her in Penthouse Arrest until further notice. And that was the last thing she needed with this new threat that made itself known that night. She couldn't leave Peter to stop it all by himself.
"Oh, I'm not gonna tell him," Tony replied. Danielle felt herself sag in relief. "You're gonna tell him." Take back that sigh of relief...
"Tony-"
"No 'buts', young lady. I know how you two are with keeping secrets from each other. Especially after Germany," he retorted, and when he saw the way her eyes darted down to the ground momentarily, he knew she knew he was right.
"But the guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons!" The second reckless and enhanced teenager exclaimed from where he sat a few feet above the first. "We have to take him down!"
"Take him down, now?" Tony exclaimed over dramatically. "Steady, Crockett, there are people who handle this sort of thing."
Danielle's eyebrows creased as she asked out loud, "Who?"
"The Avengers?" Peter perked up at the thought of the Avengers actually getting together to take down a group of arms dealers.
"No, no, no. This is a little below their pay grade."
"We don't get paid," Danielle remarked in a flat voice.
"You don't get paid because, technically, you don't exist," the billionaire explained.
"Rude," he heard her mutter beneath her breath. He chuckled lightly beneath his. He remembered a time when that petite girl wouldn't even speak to anyone outside of her weird siblings. Now, here she was, making smart remarks and trying to win a witty-banter contest against him. Maybe Peter and the rest of the high school experience was rubbing off on her after all.
"Anyway, Mr. Stark, you didn't need to come all the way out here. We had that. We were fine," the teenage boy exclaimed through his heavy breathing. Tony caught sight of Danielle throwing Peter a look of incredulity. She definitely didn't agree with his words.
But just as soon as the look came, it went. Danielle's expression turned to confusion as she soun back around to face the Iron Man suit. "I thought you were in India. Jack said something about you going for a wedding. How'd you get here so fast?"
"Oh, I'm not-" the face mask popped open to reveal the inside of the helmet to be empty where Tony's head should have been. "-here." Danielle pursed her lips together. She should've seen that coming. "Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or the two of you would be toast right now. Thank Ganesh while you're at it. Cheers."
Danielle chuckled inwardly. So he was in India, good to know. A part of her wondered if she should ask if he had heard anything from Pepper's friend Rae who was supposed to be watching her. But, she figured if she did he would only get ticked if he were to find out she was actually supposed to be there and wasn't. Then he'd call Jack and Jack would get mad at her for not telling him and it would be a whole thing that she would rather not have to deal with at the moment.
"Look," Tony continued, grasping Danielle's attention once again. "Forget the flying vulture guy, please," he said with desperation in his voice. Danielle figured he was probably as terrified as she was at the thought that they could've very well died if he hadn't saved their skins.
Peter surprised her by bluntly asking, "Why?"
"'Why?'" Tony repeated incredulously. "Because I said so!" Danielle flinched at the loud tone of his voice. She hated it when adults yelled, especially Tony. He was always super calm and collected, making witty come backs and jokes. He was hardly ever angry when she would see him. Agitated, annoyed, and frustrated– yes. Angry, furious, and violent– no. Kind of like Steve-
Danielle was quick to cut that thought off as soon as it entered her mind. She vowed not to think about any of... them after they left, knowing it would only bring her sadness and frustration.
"Can't you just be a friendly... neighborhood Spider-Man and Eris?" She caught the end of Tony's whole lecture to her and Peter about 'staying close to the ground'.
"But, we're ready for more than that now," Peter stated, stubbornly.
The mask popped down on the Iron Man helmet again as he replies, "No, you're not."
"That's not what you thought when you let Elle go to Sokovia or when I took on Captain America." Danielle shot him a look that clearly read 'don't drag me into this'. Peter ignored it.
"Hey, I didn't let Danielle do anything when it came to Sokovia," Tony replied. "And trust me, kid. If Cap wanted to lay you out, he would've." Peter turned to glance at Danielle who knowingly nodded at him in confirmation. "Listen to me. If either of you come across these weapons again, call Happy."
On the other line, there was a sound that sounded like a revving engine. Both Danielle and Peter picked their heads up and creased their eyebrows as they asked, "Are you driving?" in unison.
"You know," the billionaire began, changing the subject. "It's never too early to start thinking about college. I got some pull at MIT and, hey, maybe I can see about getting you an audition at Juliard, Harper. End Call."
"No, I don't need to -"
"Tony, no-"
"-go to college-"
"-I don't want to–"
"-Mr. Stark-"
Both their protests were drowned out when FRIDAY's robotic voice spoke, "Mr. Stark is no longer connected," she stated before the Iron Man suit shot up into the night sky, leaving the two damp teenagers in the park by themselves once again.
"Great," Danielle muttered begrudgingly at the same time Peter mumbled, "That's awesome," sarcastically. A silence passed between the two as they tried to piece together what they were going to do now. Danielle figured Peter definitely wasn't going to do as Tony said an leave the Vulture Guy and weapons dealers alone, and she definitely wasn't going to let him take them on alone.
"Yo! I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want! So, tell me what you want, what you really want! I wanna- I wanna- I wanna- I wanna- I really really really wanna zig-a-zig- ah!"
Danielle and Peter exchanged odd looks of amusement as the song continued to play. "It's not mine," Peter remarked with a smile on his face.
Suddenly, the brunette finally started to feel the buzzing of the phone in her pocket. She pieced it together quickly of who it was calling, and when she eventually compressed the Eris suit back into a hand held device and grabbed her phone nestled in her pocket, she wasn't surprised to find it was Liz who was calling. She distinctly remembered Liz changing her ring tone on her phone to this and changing her caller ID to 'Spunky Spice'. It was an inside joke referring to the time Liz had played the Spice Girls nonstop during a sleep-over after Danielle had admit to not knowing who the Spice Girls were before that night in an attempt to educate her.
"It's Liz," Danielle explained to Peter. She saw the way his eyes clearly widened and the way he sat up straight. It was clear he was stupidly in love with her. "We should probably head back. All my stuff is there, and I'm also wearing her clothes..."
"Yeah, yeah– no, definitely," Peter stammered as he climbed from off the jungle gym bars, falling into step beside her as they began their walk back to the party.
After the pair had walked out of the park, Peter was quick to pull the Spider-Man mask over his head.
"Why don't you just ditch the suit?" Danielle wondered as they walked; her in her party clothes she had worn earlier and him in his suit. She hoped no one would see and snap a picture of her walking with Spider-Man casually. And if they did, she hoped people would just assume she was a casual bystander and not Eris or a girlfriends or something weird the gossip sights would come up with.
"I would, but, uh... I'm not wearing anything underneath this and all my clothes are back on the pool house roof," he explained.
"Right..." They fell back into a silence. But after a few minutes of walking in the middle of the street, the ache in Danielle's feet was starting to get too hard to bare in the heeled boots she'd borrowed from Liz. "Wait!" She called to Peter as she halted momentarily to unzip and take off the boots, deciding to walk the rest of the way in just her socks, the boots dangling from her hand.
"Better?" He asked, his tone clearly amused.
"Mhm," she nodded with a smile.
"Hey, you're not still sick, are you?" Peter asked, recalling her puking episode after they had landed.
"Uh, I don't think so," she admit. "I have a headache, but I have medicine back at Liz's I take."
"Oh." He paused. "Is it for your powers?"
"Yeah. After Germany, when I started to regain them, I had a hard time and it would strain my mind and give me these really bad headaches. But, after some practice, it started to get manageable. Now I just take pills for the headaches my... friend gave me."
"Cool."
"Mm."
Another long beat of silence passed between them as they walked. A few minutes passed by before Danielle broke the silence.
"So," she began awkwardly. "You're not actually going to let these guys go, are you?"
She heard Peter sigh through his mask. "I can't, Elle. I mean, we can totally do it– you and I. Like-like partners, or something. We can take down these weapons dealers and prove to Mr. Stark that we're ready for this kind of stuff and– who knows? Maybe something even bigger in the future." Danielle pursed her lips as she glanced down at her feet. "You're... You're with me, right, Elle?"
"I just..." she paused. "I just don't think we should do anything behind Tony's back. He told us to stay away, but... I also know you won't."
Peter perked up at her words. "So, you'll help me?"
Danielle shrugged. "I... I guess."
"Awesome! Imagine our team-up name."
"Our team-up name?"
"Yeah. All the Avengers have them. Like, Black Widow and Hawkeye's team-up name is 'BlackHawk', Captain America and Iron Man's team-up name is 'IronCap', Thor and Hulk's–"
"I think I get it," Danielle interjected, sure that if she let him keep going, he wouldn't be stopping anytime soon.
"Well, what should our team-up name be?" Peter prompted. "I'm thinking maybe... Um, Spider...is? No, that's bad. How about... ErisMan?"
Danielle turned to Peter and Peter turned to Danielle. "Worse," they both collectively agreed before breaking into laughter.
"How about just Spider-Man and Eris for now?" Danielle suggested.
"Yeah. We can work on our team-up name later."
The pair fell into a comfortable silence as they continued their walk-of-shame through the suburban neighborhood heading back to Liz's party. It was a long walk and neither really wanted to have to swing or fly back due to their exhaustion, and also the fact that they had nearly drowned that night.
But somewhere along the walk, something caught Peter's attention in a nearby yard. "Hey, Elle," he nudged the brunette's arm. She glanced up and followed his gaze into an open yard where what looked like remnants of something were scattered around the open space. One of which had a magenta glowing piece that looked a lot like one of the weapons that had been used to shoot at them. The one Danielle had broken apart and tossed aside on the high-speed chase on the roof of a van.
"Is that...?"
Peter nodded. "I think so. Come on," he urged, both of them jogging down the yard to go investigate.
The pair make their way over to the glowing piece of the weapon, crouching down to get a better look. Peter reached out to touch it tentatively. "Be careful," Danielle is quick to warn him.
Peter touches the glowing weapon piece and turns it over onto the back to get a better look at what seemed to be some weird core of some sort. It reminded Danielle of the Scepter that gave her her own powers. She'd never seen anything like this though. Maybe it was alien...
"Woah," she heard Peter mutter in awe just as his phone began to yodel again like it had down at the overpass. She watched as he pulled his phone out of the back of the suit and answered. "Hey, man, what's up? I'm on my way back," he told whoever was on the other end.
"Who is it?" Danielle whispered to him.
"Ned," he whispered back before something on the other line caught his attention. Danielle could see the way the white eyes of the mask furrowed ever so slightly, indicating he was upset beneath it. Something was wrong back at the party.
There was a long pause before Peter eventually replied, "I'll see you tomorrow." He hung up, shoving the phone back into his suit and grabbing the glowing core. He jumped to his feet, not bothering to even wait for Danielle as he started climbing back up the yard and onto the street again. Oh yeah, something was definitely wrong.
"Peter, wait!" She called, running after him. When she finally caught up with him back in the street, she could see the way his fists were clenched and how his shoulders were sagged. "Hey... Hey!" She shouted more forcefully, even grabbing his arm to try and stop him. He did eventually stop momentarily to turn to her, but his white eyes were looking anywhere but at her. "What's wrong? What did Ned say?"
"Nothing," was all he replied before walking again.
"It wasn't nothing, Peter." Danielle continued to walk after him. "Something's bothering you... You can tell me, you know."
Suddenly, Peter came to a halt and spun around to face her as he shouted, "No, I can't, Elle!" Danielle stopped in her tracks as she stared at him blankly, unsure f wha to make of the situation because she had no clue what was wrong. "I can't tell you what's bothering me because you don't get it. Sure, you've seen first hand how much of a jackass Flash is, but you haven't had to deal with him for years of nonstop torment like I have. In fact, you hang out with him sometimes. You and Liz got him to be the DJ at the party tonight!" Oh... It was all starting to make sense to Danielle now.
"I just..." Peter tried to find the words, but nothing came out and he went right back to storming off down the street. He walked four feet in front of Danielle the rest of the way back to the house blasting music. He occasionally glanced over his shoulder to make sure she was still behind him and hadn't wandered off, but other than that he ignored her entirely. He felt kind of bad. It wasn't her fault Flash and the other kids at Midtown were assholes, but he also was kind of ticked about the fact that Danielle was sometimes apart of that clique who teased and tormented him, acting like they were friends. It made him feel betrayed.
Eventually, when the house came into view, the pair stopped just short of the front yard and made their way to the back through the side alley until they reached the side if the pool house. The party still seemed to be going on in full-swing still, but neither Peter or Danielle cared to notice as they climbed (or launched themselves) up onto the roof.
Peter was silent as he pulled his regular clothes back on over his suit, shoving the core into his back pocket as he did so. He had been so caught up with changing he hadn't noticed Danielle left until he saw her back inside, joining her friends as if she had never left. Peter felt a bubble of rage and frustration building back up in his chest before he swung away, not bothering to spare her a second glance. She sure didn't spare him one.
Down below at the party, Danielle had to push her way through different people until she finally found Liz in the living room talking with a few people she recognized from the Student Council. As soon as Danielle came into view, Liz's face lit up. "Ellie," she beamed. "Where have you been? I tried calling you."
"I know," Danielle replied lamely. "I just... went out for some air."
"Are you sick? You look kind of... pale," she remarked.
"I'm fine. I'm actually just gonna go change and maybe head back home. It's getting kind of late and I'm really tired."
"Okay... You sure?"
Danielle took a glance around at the scene around her. People she hardly knew partying and shouting and drinking. People she didn't really like brushing up against her and acting like they were friends. She understood now why Peter was upset. But what she didn't understand was why she hadn't seen it before. "Yeah," Daniele replied with new determination in her voice. "I'll see you tomorrow at school." And without a second glance to Liz or any of her other 'friends', Danielle sauntered upstairs to change back into her regular attire of a skirt, a tee, and her hoodie with Vans. After she was done and ready to go, she couldn't help but notice a figure swinging away outside. A twinge of pain struck her heart and she couldn't help but feel guilty that she hadn't tried being a better friend to the few real friends she had.
No more, she vowed to herself. No more.
—
A/N: Holy shittttttttt. This took literally forever. I just wrote like 6,000 words of this chapter in two days after procrastinating a whole week and a half. I apologize. I'll try to get better, but no promises. Anyway, here's you guys' new and LONG update. Enjoy because we are now officially deep into Homecoming and Danielle and Peter definitely have some problems to work out before they can save the day.
Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:
Peter: Treat spiders the way you want to be treated.
Dani: ...
Dani: Killed without hesitation?
