A/N: Very, very, very long chapter. Lots of action, lil bit of humor sprinkled in, and a pinch of angst as well. Enjoy!
Chapter Songs: Shut Up and Drive by Rihanna (you'll know which part), Teeth by 5 Seconds of Summer for the part after that, and Radioactive by Imagine Dragons for the last part because it's and oldie, but an action classic.
Headcanon of the chapter: Danielle is definitely bi. That's it. That's the tweet. Happy Pride Month my gays, gals, and straight ally pals :D
—
"I'm sorry about dinner, but," Flash apologized to his date who sat in the freshly vacuumed leather passenger seat beside him in his fresh new Audi. His parents had bought it for him a few months and ago and he made sure to clean it up extra nice tonight for Homecoming.
He'd been planning this night for weeks. He'd boughten his tux the day he saw the first announcement about it. He set up a reservation at one of the best Italian places in Midtown. And he'd even managed to ask out one of the hottest juniors in the school; Quinn Johnson, the girl that had competed on American Idol and was close friends with Liz. Originally, he had planned to ask out Liz herself, but for some unknown reason she decided to go with Parker instead. But, either way, Quinn worked fine as a bit of arm candy to have when he walked up to claim his crown for Homecoming King.
This was going to be the perfect night, his plan was fool-proof.
But even then, it still managed to fall apart.
His tux was a bit too tight when it eventually came in, Quinn wore a completely different color schemed outfit from his blue and black outfit, he spilt iced coffee in the cup holder of the car earlier that week, and to top it all off, him and Quinn had to leave the fancy restaurant he had a reservation at because of a very vocal disagreement Flash had had with the chef about the bronzino.
"I know when bronzino's fresh, and that was not fresh, okay?" He tried to explain to Quinn, but she didn't seem interested in hearing what he had to say as her eyes remained glued to the front windshield as the wind blew through her hair with the top down on the car. Flash opened his mouth to try and salvage the conversation, but he was interrupted when a large figure suddenly fell on top of the hood of the car.
"AH-" The teenage boy screamed and hit the brakes instantly. He looked up at the figure and found himself staring into the eyes of death.
"Flash," the white-eyed demon on his hood growled in a deep voice. How did he know his name? Was he going to Hell? "I need your car and your phone," the demon demanded.
Flash swallowed hard, his hands gripping the wheel until his knuckles turned white. "Uh, sir, tech-technically this is my dad's car, sir," he stammered in a rush of words. "So, I can't-"
"Holy shit, Flash, just give him the god damn car and the phone!" Quinn screeched from beside him, her eyes wide with fear as she quickly began to undo her seatbelt and clamber out of the Audi.
"Uh, I-I-" he wanted to try and stop her, but the red and blue, white-eyed demon jumped down from off the hood and opened his side of the door, pulling him out by his coat sleeve with ease. He wasn't even sure what was happening. One moment he was in his car, bragging to his date about how he was a shoe-in for Homecoming King, to standing on the sidewalk without his car and without his phone that had somehow ended up out of his pocket and into the hand of the demon– that Flash now recognized as Spider-Man as he drove away in his car.
"Eep," he whimpered as he watched his dad's brand new Audi swerve at an alarming speed, hitting a pile of bikes on it's way down the street. Oh, he was so dead.
—
"Holy shit!" Peter shouted as he sped off down the street, his hands gripping the wheel as he struggled to maintain he speed and drive in a straight line. Why was the car so sensitive when he turned the wheel even a little bit-?
"Peter!"
"Agh!" The enhanced teenager yelped in surprise at his partner's sudden appearance in the passenger's seat beside him. For a moment, he had forgotten Danielle could teleport and definitely wasn't expecting the brunette to suddenly just appear out of thin next to him in a speeding car. Her jump scare led to Peter spinning the wheel by accident, driving the car into oncoming traffic.
"Look out!" Danielle shouted as her hands went up to grip the dashboard and the bottom of her seat, so not to get thrown out of the vehicle as Peter quickly readjusted the wheel and took a sharp right onto the main street. "Oh my God!" Peter shouted as he tried to steady the car.
Next to him, Danielle was quickly buckling her seat belt as she watched cars speed by her from the wrong side of the road Peter was rushing down. This is how I die, she inwardly cringed as she felt the car drive over bumps and manholes at alarming speed. It didn't calm her nerves when Peter suddenly let one hand off the wheel to fumble with the phone in his lap. "What are you doing?" She demanded, her hand coming up to grab onto the wheel to drive it out of the way of more oncoming traffic.
Peter fumbled with Flash's phone, it was dark and was kind of hard to dial Ned's number while speeding in an expensive car one-handed. He got Ned's number down eventually and put the phone to his ear. "Come on, come on. Pick up," he pleaded softly as the phone rang. After a few seconds, the ringing stopped. "Hello, Ned? Hey, hey, hey, can you hear me?" He shouted over the beeping of the cars around him and the squealing of the car tires.
"Go for Ned," came the response on the other line.
Oh, thank God. "Ned, I need you to track my phone for me," he explained.
"Yeah, but where is it?"
"I left it in Liz's Dad's car," he explained.
Danielle spun her head to look at him, her eyes wide with concern. "You were in the car with him?" She asked in disbelief.
"What was I supposed to do?" He shouted back to her, the phone still to his ear. "Attack him in the middle of Liz's living room?"
Danielle threw her head back with frustration. "Oh my- give me that," her hand that had been on the wheel came up to quickly snatch the phone away from Peter's ear. "Ned? Where is he?"
"Uh, he just passed the Gamestop on Jackson Avenue," Ned replied. Danielle imagined he felt a little awkward tuning in to her and Peter's disagreement of sorts.
"Headed in which direction?"
"West," came the reply.
"Passing Jackson Avenue, headed due West- wrong lane, wrong lane!" She shouted to Peter as he swerved across the double yellow lines in the middle of the street to get closer to the turn coming up. "The right side of the yellow lines!"
"I can't see them!" He shouted back. "Where are the headlights on this thing?"
Danielle pulled the phone from her ear and pressed the speakerphone button. "Ned?"
"I'll pull up the specs. What car are you in?"
"We're in Flash's car!" Peter shouted. "I don't know what-"
"An Audi TTS Roadster," Danielle finished for him. When she turned her head to face him, she saw the oddly wide and squinted white goggles on Peter's face giving her a confused look. She shrugged, "he never shuts up about it."
"You stole Flash's car? Awesome," Ned's chuckle filled the car.
"Yeah, it's awesome," Peter shouted back. "It's awe- urgh!" Just then, a large bus pulled out in front of the car from the turn while the other lane was occupied by a car coming at them full speed. Danielle yelped as Peter hit the brakes and swerved the car to turn around the bus, which resulted in the car driving along the sidewalk.
"Peter!" Danielle shouted, her attention drawn towards the people sitting at tables or walking in their path.
Peter saw them. "Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Move! Move!" He honked the horn, watching as people quickly dashed out of the way of danger.
"Guys, are you okay?" Ned asked timidly from over the phone.
"No," Danielle croaked.
Peter turned the car back onto the street from off the sidewalk finally. "I've never really driven before. Only with May in parking lots," he admitted as he maneuvered the car through oncoming traffic as best he could. "This is a huge step-up," he nervously laughed just as more cars were starting to drive towards them.
"Peter, the intersection!" Danielle shouted as the car came barreling through the busy intersection, barely escaping being grazed by a large black SUV. "Holy shit," Danielle gasped. Her hands were gripping the bottom of her seat so tightly, they were almost as pale as her face beneath the make-shift mask she had on.
"Ned, have you gotten through to Mr. Stark or Happy yet?" Peter shouted over Danielle's murmured curses.
"Uh, yeah. I'm working on it," their friend replied. "I just need your phone password, Danielle."
"Um..." Danielle inwardly cringed. "It's 'bendandsnap1118.'" She heard Peter laugh from beside her and rolled her eyes.
Ned was silent for a moment before the pair heard a clap. "I'm in... I've always wanted to say that." Danielle let an amused chuckle escape her lips as she shook her head in disbelief. God, she hoped this worked.
"Your password is 'bendandsnap'?" Peter chuckled from beside her.
"It's not important," she retorted. "What is important is that you stay in the lines!" She scolded as the car went swerving over the double yellow lines for the fifth time in over a minute.
"Well, I would if I could see them!" He defended himself as he turned the car back into the left lane passing up another car in the right. "Hey, Ned, how we coming along with those headlights?"
"Uh... Round knob to the left of the steering wheel, turn clockwise."
"Left, okay." Danielle watched as he let go of the steering wheel for a moment to switch on the lights. "Okay, perfect." The lights lit up the street in front of them and Danielle hoped it would help ensure Peter wouldn't crash them into something. "So, where's my phone now?"
"Um... he stopped in an old industrial park in Brooklyn."
Danielle furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Their head of operations?" She turned to Peter and asked.
"No, that makes no sense," Peter stated as he took a swift turn to the right, barely missing an oncoming van. "He said he was going out of town!" Danielle threw him a glare at the reminder that he had talked to Winged Man and hadn't told her to begin with.
"Weird," Ned replied over the phone. "Oh, I couldn't get a hold of Mr. Stark, but I reached Mr. Happy... By the way, don't think he likes you, Peter."
Danielle snorted. "What did he say?"
"Well, I mentioned Peter and he hung up on me," he explained. "It sounded like he was catching a flight. He said something about taking off in nine minutes."
"What?" Peter shouted in disbelief.
"Did he say where?" Danielle prompted, confused as to why Happy would be leaving the city. He was supposed to be in charge of them, which meant he was expected to stay within the city to keep them in check. But he was also Tony's head of security at Stark Industries, maybe they were calling him somewhere.
"No, but he was surrounded by a bunch of boxes," he replied.
Now it was Danielle's turn to be in disbelief. "What? Boxes?"
"It's moving day," she heard Peter utter in realization. "It's moving day! It's moving day!" He shouted louder.
"Moving day? Moving where?"
"Happy told me a long time ago that Mr. Stark had sold the Avenger's Tower and they were moving everything to some upstate facility," Peter explained to her in a rush flurry of words she was barely able to comprehend. "Elle, he's gonna rob that plane! We gotta stop him!"
"Ah!" Danielle yelped as Peter floored it, her head jerking and hitting the back of her seat as the car swerved in and around cars through the lanes. "Stay in the lines, stay in the lines, stay in the lines," she muttered beneath her breath every time the car swiveled a bit too much. Oh, if she ever got in a car again after this it would be too soon.
"Okay, Ned, I need you to walk me through directions here," Peter called out to the phone. "We just got to Brooklyn. Where's the phone at?"
"Uh, okay, take a left right... now."
Peter turned the wheel a bit too fast and made a wide turn to the left resulting in Danielle to hit her head against the door beside her. "Ow," she muttered, her hand coming up from beneath her seat to rub the sore spot.
"Sorry," Peter uttered a soft apology as he steadied the car again.
Anger settled in Danielle's stomach and before she could help herself her thoughts became words. "About what, not knowing how to drive or leaving to go after Wing Man without me?" She retorted.
"I couldn't tell you! I didn't have time!" Peter tried to explain.
"Take a right."
Peter swerved the car over the lane and took another sharp turn as Danielle angrily prompted, "Couldn't or wouldn't?" Peter shifted in his seat, he could feel her glare on him as he continued to floor it towards the industrial park. "What happened to being partners? Were you even planning on telling me at all when you dashed out of there?"
"No! I wasn't, okay?" He finally snapped.
Danielle fell speechless for a moment. "... why? Why wouldn't you let me help you? We were supposed to 'take him down' together! Why change that now?" He didn't reply.
"Okay, slow down. You're getting close," Ned notified the pair, drawing their attention away from their argument and back to the task at hand. "It's on your right."
"What?!" Peter shouted as he nearly passed the turn.
"Turn right! Turn right!"
In an act of quick thinking and impulsive reaction, Peter reached his arm out over Danielle and shot a web at the light pole on the corner of the turn. Danielle barely had time to process what he was doing when the car suddenly ran over a curb, into a pole, and flipped onto it's side. Her screams and Peter's shouts were overwhelmed by the screeching of metal against asphalt as the car spun in circles for what seemed like minutes.
Danielle, who had been keeping her eyes closed the entire time chose the wrong time to open them when she looked up above her head to see a large pole that the car was headed towards... specifically aimed at her. "OH MY GOD!" She screeched, her arm shooting out from the car on impulse as she exerted a portion of her power in a concentrated burst in the air between the spinning car and the wooden pole it was on a collision course to. The car came to a screeching halt before falling back onto it's four wheels.
It was dead silent, like the calm after a storm. One minute, the scariest thing that had happened while Peter was driving was him going over the double yellow lines and the next they were spinning at a 90 degree angle.
"Oh my God..." Danielle let out a soft whimper as her body came down from the sudden adrenaline rush she had just gone through within the time span of only six seconds. She could've almost died and her body was processing that fact by shaking uncontrollably while her hands still gripped the door on her side and the bottom of her seat.
Beside her, Peter was also still reeling from the fact that they were almost crushed by a pole. His fear was set aside when he heard the sniffles from beside him. He turned to see Danielle shaking, her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath.
"Elle? Elle are you okay?" His arm that had instinctively reached over her middle to keep her in place slowly retracted so he could unbuckle the seat belt she had on. He grimaced at the sight of the red mark it had left on her collarbone, but he imagined it would've been worse had she not put it on when she first got in. Luckily, he hadn't needed one because of his sticky palms that latched onto the car door that kept him in place, but from the state Danielle was in he knew she was probably fearing for her life being so close to the ground the way she had been during the crash.
"Peter? Danielle? Are you guys okay?" Ned's voice rang out from the phone that had somehow managed to stay put in the cup holder between them.
Peter turned to Danielle. "Elle?"
She had her eyes closed and was still kind of shaking, but she nodded firmly. "Yeah. 'M fine."
"Yeah, we're fine, Ned," Peter answered Ned. "Just keep trying to get through to Happy or Mr. Stark." Peter jumped up and out of his seat with ease to run around to the other side. Danielle's hand came up to pull the door latch open, but he beat her to it. "Woah, take it easy," he said when she stood up out of the car a bit too fast. "You sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine," she repeated herself more firmly as she stepped around Peter to get to the sidewalk. Her eyes landed on the wooden pole and she got a gauge on just how thick it was. She thought she saw a glimmer of light near the bottom where her head might've been had she not done what she had at just the right moment, but she shook away those thoughts. Her and Peter had a bad guy to take down, she could reflect on their near death experience later.
She turned when she felt Peter brush past her to get to the concrete industrial park just around the corner. "Come on," he said, running off in a crouch. Danielle followed after him, her heels clicking ever so slightly as they passed the car in the parking lot and made their way to the building itself.
It didn't look run down by any means, but it looked as though no one had been here in years. But judging by the surrounding areas filled with graffiti and the lack thereof on this building, she knew better than to think no one had been using it.
"We should go in from the top," Peter suggested as they approached. "He'll probably be expecting us to come in from the front."
"He'll probably be expecting us either way," Danielle replied with a grim look on her face, her eyes traveling to the car in the middle of the empty parking lot in front of the building. It shook her to her core knowing that Liz had been driving around with someone as dangerous as this man... living with this man. Danielle had stayed at her house where the Winged Demon that had tried to kill her and Peter (and almost succeeded) had been living.
"Hey." Danielle was lulled back to the present by the sound of Peter calling her. She turned to her side and saw him nod, his obscure and odd goggles wide with what she assumed was meant to be comfort. She watched as he held his hand out to her and said, "Partners."
She didn't hesitate to take his hand in hers and grip it firmly as she nodded and replied, "Partners."
One moment they were standing on the side of the building, and within the blink of an eye the pair were suddenly standing on the roof of the exact same building.
Peter stumbled slightly on the new surface and the odd feeling of being misplaced. "What the-" he caught himself and stood erect on the roof, his head swiveling from side to side as he tried to process what the hell just happened. "Holy-"
"Ssh," Danielle hissed at him, her eyes already wandering around the roof trying to find a point of entry as her partner tried to calm himself down.
"Did you just... did you just teleport me?" He whispered in a shocked tone that almost sounded as though he were offended.
Danielle turned back to him. "If I say 'yes' are you gonna keep freaking out?" Peter became silent as he took a moment to deliberate this before finally nodding. "Okay, then, no."
The pair slowly and carefully crept along the metal roof of the building, searching for any openings. There were a few ladders, but Peter had his eyes set on the bigger part of the building that looked like it was being lit up from within.
"Over here," he called to his partner when he happened upon a door with a latch a few yards away. Danielle tried not to make too much noise with her heels as she rushed over to the door. When she got there, Peter had already yanked it open.
She held a hand out to him, but he shook his head almost immediately. "No way. Twice in a row? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the first time," he whispered. Danielle rolled her eyes at his antics.
Carefully, Peter shot a web at an overhead piece of roof from the neighboring building and made sure it was secure before extending his arm out to Danielle. She walked close to the edge of the open piece of roof and leaned into him, letting him wrap an arm around her waist as she wrapped hers around his shoulders and very slowly they began to descend down into the building.
It was dark, but Danielle's eyes adjusted quickly to their surroundings. Light coming from small outlets of light bulbs scattered across what looked like an empty warehouse. For a supposedly abandoned industrial park, this place was way too clean. Her suspicions had been proven right when her and Peter finally reached the ground. Her heels clicked on the concrete floor as she cautiously walked towards what seemed to be the weapon dealers' main hub of operations.
There were couches and rolls office chairs surrounded by metal desks with large computer and TV screens surrounding them. One had a map of New York City on it, another had a large blueprint of what seemed to be a Stark designed aircraft, and another was of the Tower. Danielle's skin turned cold at the sight of the old Avenger's Headquarters. She'd only stayed there for a few months before she herself was transported and moved with the rest of the Avengers to the Compound, but it was still so surreal to believe that these people were planning to rob the plane leaving there. And from the looks of it, they had been planning for a long time, a few months at most.
"Elle," she heard Peter call from a few yards away. She glanced up to look at him then noticed what he was gesturing towards.
There the were. The wings. They were huge. They looked different idle and not diving after her or coming at her full speed. Her skin was peppered with goosebumps because although it wasn't on and no one was in the suit, she could still feel just how ruthless and unrelenting those wings were. Just like the man that wore them.
Danielle and Peter walked past the wings towards a larger room. It was dark all around, but at the end of the darkness was a naturally light spot at the end where a table sat and a man stood beside, his back turned to them. Peter could feel the warmth beside him disappear as Danielle vanished from beside him and reappeared across the room to survey the room and the dangerous man at the end of it. He took it as a time to confront him, seeing as his suit was put away and he had caught him off guard, he was no danger to him or Elle.
"Hey!" He shouted, his voice echoing off the concrete walls and enormous room of the abandoned building. He watched as Adrian Toomes jumped up, startled, and spun around to face him. His eyes squinted and refocused and he almost seemed... relieved when he saw Peter walking towards him. "Surprised?" He prompted.
He expected him to try and maybe run, but instead Peter watched as Toomes leaned back onto the table in a relaxed manner and spoke to him as if he were an old friend. "Oh, hey, Pete. I didn't hear you come in."
"Did you hear me?" A grave, yet soft voice came from behind him. Peter could see Toomes' expression visibly fall and his body tense as Danielle walked out from the shadows behind him, her heels clicking against the concrete and the moonlight reflecting off the pale pink of her dress creating almost an aura of light around her. And to top it off, her gold eyes really stood out in the dark.
Toomes glanced over his shoulder at her and smirked. "Hiya, Ellie."
Danielle stiffened, her eyes instantly returning to her normal shade of light brown at the mention of the nickname Liz had given her. It felt wrong and disgusting coming out of the mouth of a killer like her father. She felt as though she had been smacked in the face just by him using that one word.
Peter could see his partner's clear discomfort and stepped in. "It's over," he called out to him. "We've got you!"
Toomes smiled and shook his head as he turned back to Peter in front of him. "You know, I gotta tell you, Pete, I really, really admire your grit. I see why Liz likes you. I do," he told him as he slowly pulled his jacket on. Now it was Peter's turn to feel like he had been sucker punched in the gut. "When you first came to the house, I wasn't sure. I thought 'really'? But I get it now... Same thing with you, Ellie."
Danielle glared at him as he turned around to face her. "We've never been officially introduced, but I heard the way Liz always talked about you. You two were best buddies," he laughed at the terminology. "It's kind of ironic, isn't it? Your best friend's dad turns out to be the guy you're hunting down?"
Danielle felt sick to her stomach listening to him dangle his daughter at them to make them vulnerable. Liz didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve him. "How could you do this to her?"
"To her? I'm not doing anything to her, Ellie. I'm doing this for her," he replied. "But, what about you? How could you do this to her? You've been her friend for... how many years? And you repay her by going behind her back, sneaking around with her boyfriend trying to take down her dad? How do you think she'd feel if she knew what you did in the dark, Danielle?"
The glowing eyes were back and brighter than ever as she glared holes into his head. Her teeth were gritted and her fists were clenched as she fought the urge to bring the entire building down onto his skull and crush it right here and now. She'd only felt such fury before when she was facing Rumlow, but this rage bubbling up within her had to be checked... She didn't want to hurt someone so close to Liz, it would only hurt her. She had to remind herself her and Peter were here to take him down and bring him to justice, not kill him.
Frustrated by Toomes' blatant manipulation of both him and Danielle, Peter had had enough and shot a small web out to stick Toomes' hand on the table where he leaned.
Toomes didn't seem too affected by this. He signed heavily and shook his head as though he was disappointed, but not surprised. "You two are young. You don't know how the world works," he said.
"Yeah, but we understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong," Peter shot back.
"How do you think your buddy Stark paid for that Tower? Or any of his little toys?" He prompted. "Those people, Pete, those people up there- people like her-" Danielle glowered when he pointed to her. "The rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us, like you and me, they don't care about us. We build their roads and we fight all their wars and everything- they don't care about us. We have to pick up after 'em. We have to eat their table scraps. That's how it is. I know you know what I'm talking about, Peter."
Danielle turned to her attention to Peter. Was that really how he felt? Used and somehow beneath her and Tony? Like somehow because she was an Avenger she was above him? Or that Tony was using him? Sure, Tony was a bit harsh with his punishment when it came to the ferry incident, but Tony would never use Peter or take advantage of him. He just wanted to keep them safe.
She expected Peter to tell him he was wrong, but instead she heard him ask with a broken voice, "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I want you to understand. And..." Toomes trailed off ominously. "I needed a little time to get her airborne."
Suddenly, the large pair of metal wings came crashing through the wall. Danielle knew the wings she had seen down the hall and in her nightmares, and these were different. These were worse. These wings were bigger and had larger engines on the back making them faster... and more powerful.
Danielle watched as the wings flew at Peter. He jumped up, maneuvered himself, and dodged the wings a multitude of times as they flew in and around the large room. Danielle wanted to step in, but her attention was caught by Toomes whipping out a small pocketknife and ripping his hand free from the webbing on the table. She stepped towards him, but he was quick to step back and hold his knife up to her in a threatening demeanor.
"Ah-uh," he admonished her as he shook the knife a little in her direction. "You don't wanna hurt me. You'll just be hurting Liz."
Danielle tilted her head and narrowed her eyes in a hard glare. If looks could kill, Toomes would've probably been turned into dust by now. But Danielle's looks weren't completely useless. With a swipe of her hand, the knife in his hand went flying across the room in the blink of an eye.
Toomes held his hands up said he were surrendering just as Peter was sticking the landing after the wings came at him for the last time. "I'm sorry, Peter," he called to the boy from over his shoulder. Danielle narrowed her eyes in confusion. What was he talking about?
"What are you talking about?" Peter spoke exactly what she was thinking. "We have you surrounded, and that thing hasn't even touched me yet."
"True..." Toomes admit. "... then again, wasn't really trying to."
Danielle heard the crashing sound coming from within the surrounding darkness. It was the sound of the wings flying through more pillars within the building. The pillars... Oh God-
It was too late, the pillars within the building all crumbled at the same time and the concrete walls and roof of the building came tumbling down... right towards where Peter stood helplessly in the middle of it.
"No. No!" Danielle shouted as she vanished from one side of the room, directly in front of Peter. She wrapped her arms around him to try and get him out of there, but it was too late. She felt the weight of countless large pieces of concrete and building fall onto her before she could even think of how to teleport the pair out of it. One minute she was diving towards Peter, the next she felt a hard force hit the back of her head and all she could see was black.
—
It was dark... and rough... and hard.
Danielle tried to shift, but something was holding her down. Something big. She tried to push, but her arms were stuck at her sides... and sore.
She tried to breath, but dust sucked into her nose resulting in a fit of coughs. "Mm," she groaned. Where was she? Why couldn't she move? Why couldn't she breath? Why couldn't she feel the bottom half of her body? And why couldn't she open her eyes?
In the distance of this darkness, she thought she heard someone calling out for her, but it sounded a bit fuzzy. As if she was underwater.
Was she? Was she drowning? It would explain her inability to open her eyes and why she couldn't breath, but wouldn't explain why she wasn't moving and why this body of water felt so stiff and heavy.
There was more noise, but it still just sounded like white noise in the back of her mind.
Slowly, Danielle could feel again in each of her fingers as they twitched. She felt around for any clues as to where she was. It felt like pebbles and sand and it smelt like dust and old construction sites. Carefully, Danielle moved her arm up. It was sore, but she pushed through until her hand came up to touch her face. She could feel fabric over her nose and mouth. That was why shouldn't breath.
Without a second thought, she ripped it off and threw it to the side. A fit of heavy coughs shook her body as she was finally able to breath in fresh air again. The sound of her coughs traveled to her ears. They rang softly but after popping them a few times from flexing her jaw, she was able to slowly gain that sense back.
It sounded like water dripping off into the distance, the echo bouncing off of empty walls. She could also hear the creaking of metal and the sound of rocks being thrown around.
Danielle took her other free hand and dragged it across her face, wiping away the crusty residue of whatever she was covered in off of her face. After it was all gone, her half-lidded eyes slowly began to take in her surroundings. It was dark, but there was some light from above... it the moon and sky up above. New York City didn't have any stars to be seen, but the light pollution lit up the sky enough on it's own. The city that never sleeps, never actually did.
What was this on top of her? What was this crushing weight on her body?
Her hands made their way up to her chest area where she felt the most weight and was surprised to find something hard, heavy, and stiff. It was...a rock.
It all came back to her then.
"That thing hasn't even touched me yet!"
"...wasn't really trying to."
"No. No!"
"no..." Danielle groaned. Her body felt sore as she attempted to sit up, but the concrete that had fallen into her after the confrontation with Toomes and his wings left her incapacitated. She tried to push on the concrete, but it was a little difficult when her are, hardly had room to push back. They were as high as they could go and could barely get moment to push hard enough to get it to budge. "Urgh," she gave up with a huff. This wasn't working.
She began looked around at all the destruction around her. There had to be someone out there. Where was Peter?
"Peter?" She shouted. Dust caught in her throat, throwing her into another fit of coughs. "P-Peter-?!" She was cut off with more coughs.
"Elle?!" She heard someone call back from over a mood of concrete and metal. "Elle, are you out there?" It was Peter. It was Peter. He was alright, he was okay, he wasn't hurt.
Danielle let out a heavy sigh of relief. Thank God. "Pete..." she called out weakly, the large piece of concrete making it hard to shout much of anything. "...help," she added.
"Elle?" The voice was closer than just a distant echo over the rubble. Before she knew it, a familiar red and blue sweat-wearing figure came scrambling over chunks of concrete to get to where she was. Peter knelt down beside her to assess the situation. "I'm gonna get this off of you. You're gonna be okay," he promised, his voice slightly muffled through his mask. She couldn't see his eyes, but she could see the concern in the white goggle lens staring back at her.
"Just-just hold still," he told her as he stepped away from her and turned his focus on the large piece of rubble on top of her. "Urgh," he groaned as he placed his two hands on the edge and pushed forcefully.
"Mm," Danielle whimpered as she felt the weight slowly release he lower parts of her body. She looked up and could see Peter was struggling to lift the rock completely off of her. She raised a hand and pushed back with her mind, her powers being the final push the rock needed to be completely off of her.
Peter shoved the rock to the side and went right back to Danielle as she slowly began to sit up. "Woah, woah, woah. Take it easy," he said as he slowly helped her to her feet. She wobbled a bit in her heels, but she got ahold of the feeling in her legs fairly quickly.
Once she was sure she had her balance down and all the feeling in her body was back, she was quick to turn her attention to Peter. Her hand came up to remove the mask he had on to get a better look at the winds on his face. He had a red, blotched face from what seemed to be tears and physical exertion. He had a trail of partially dried blood going up his hairline into his damp brown curls. Danielle raised a hand and gently pressed it to his cheek and watched as he winced in response. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Really, Elle," he reassured her. He grabbed a hold of her wrist and gently tugged her hand from his face. "Are you?"
She nodded profusely. She sighed, a deep frown crossing her face. "I'm sorry. I-I tried to get you out of there, but-"
"Elle-"
"I should've seen it coming sooner. I could've stopped you-
"Elle-"
"You were hurt because of me-"
"ELLE!" He raised his voice and grabbed her shoulders to get her attention. He looked directly into her tearful eyes and told her firmly, "I'm fine. This isn't your fault. But, we gotta catch him before he gets away, okay? Are you with me on this?" Danielle glanced up into Peter's puffy eyes. She could see his determination and silent pleading. She could feel his strong, yet gentle grip on her arms that told her how much he needed her. Her own fingers gripped his biceps when she realized she needed him too. Danielle nodded firmly.
"Partners," she told him.
Peter nodded. "Partners." His hands fell from her shoulders to take back the mask and pull it over his head. He bent down beside Danielle and grabbed her own mask she had made from hthe fabric of her dress and handed it to her. "Can't go saving lives without a mask." Danielle spared him a smile. She dusted off the mask as best she could before thing it back around her face.
Once she was finished, Peter took her hand and his, squeezing it lightly just to double check if she was really on board with this. She squeezed back and he started to lead her towards the exit of the broken and even more run-down building. Danielle struggled to kee up a little due to the fact that she was in a heavily ripped dress and heels, but she managed well until they eventually had gotten out.
The moon was bright in the sky as it shined down on the city below. For Danielle and Peter, the moon acted as a flashlight.
In the corner of his eye, Peter spotted the glistening sparkle of the moonlight reflecting off of a pair of deadly metal wings. "Elle. Over there." Danielle followed her partner's line of sight and saw what he did. On top of a billboard just down the street was Toomes, perched on top of it, his glowing eyes behind the helmet scanning the area in front of him as his back was turned to them. He was hunting. He looked like some kind of vulture, waiting for his prey to be vulnerable to attack.
He was a coward, Danielle knew that now after he trapped her and Peter beneath a building. But, he was a coward that had a plan that was difficult to stop. Luckily for her and Peter, they had a plan to stop it anyway. And they were braver than most people that were far too scared to face him.
"Ready?" Peter asked his partner beside him.
This was it, what they had been working towards for a month now. They'd been shot at, blown into walls, thrown off of cars, dropped into a lake, kicked off of trucks, locked into vaults, went up against alien tech, suspended from vigilante-ing, punched into buses, and had a building dropped on them.
They'd come this far, and it was too late to not be ready.
Danielle nodded and threw her arms around Peter's neck. She heard the 'thwip' of his web shooters fly out to latch onto the wing's of Toomes' suit. There was tugging for a moment before the pair were flying from off the ground at an alarming speed.
Danielle yelped, her legs that had been on the ground quickly wrapping around Peter's hips to the point where all her limbs were attached to him and she was hanging onto him like a koala. Her face was buried deep into the crook of his neck while her air flew in all kinds of directions with the wind whipping it up the higher they flew.
"Woah-!" Peter shouted as they whipped back and forth in the air. Danielle's nails biting into the fabric of his suit the higher they went. "Don't look down!" He shouted over the wind whistling in her ears.
Despite herself, Danielle glanced up from Peter's shoulder and watched the city of New York grow smaller beneath her. "Oh my God-!"
"I said don't look down- woah!"
"Ah!"
The pair shouted in unison as the air grew thinner and the altitude got higher.
"We're getting closer to the plane!" Peter managed to bite out through gritted teeth as his hand held onto the web for dear life.
Danielle looked up despite her fear of falling and saw the shape of a plane. There was some type of tech that reflected it's surroundings making it almost invisible, but it could still be seen from close up. Sure enough, underneath it's belly, was the Vulture wings attaching itself like a leech to the planet's bottom. Toomes wasn't just raiding the plane, he was hijacking it and everything in it.
"Get me close enough so I can get in!" Danielle shouted into Peter's ear.
He nodded in response. "Okay! I'll tell you when we're close!"
Danielle held onto him tighter as she prepared to let go. God, she hoped this would work. If not, she was going to be falling a lot harder, further, and faster than the last time Toomes had gotten ahold of her and Peter. It almost felt like deja vu-
"Now, now, now! Go!" Peter shouted.
Without a moment's notice, Danielle ignored every instinct she had in her body to keep holding onto Peter and let go. A scream escaped her throat as she fell, the wind hitting her full-on. But within the blink of an eye, she had vanished from out of the sky.
"Oomph!" She landed against a hard metal surface with a thud and groan. When she opened her eyes, she was lying on her back facing the ceiling of the plane... She'd made it. "Oh, thank God," she uttered in a quick sigh of relief.
No time to waste, she reminded herself as she jumped to her feet and began to survey her surroundings. It was crowded in the planet's large interior. When Peter had told her Happy was moving everything from the Tower, Happy really did move everything it seemed. There were boxes on top of boxes all around her. And not just any boxes, sealed and locked high-tech boxes holding goods and technology she couldn't even begin to imagine the cost of or how much damage they would cause when weaponized.
Carefully, Danielle made her way through the boxes. If she wanted to stop Toomes, she needed to be careful. He couldn't take her hand-to-hand, but if he were to be set off about where she was or who was with her outside trying to get in, she'd bet her life that he'd find a way to weasel his way out of their clutches and bring harm to people they knew out of spite and anger. They had to end this here and now.
As Danielle made her way towards what she assumed was the front of the plane, she could hear a muffled voice. Her heels made small noises as they carried her around a few boxes towards what looked to be the cock-pit. There wasn't anyone in there– unsurprising since Tony rarely had pilots nowadays, but maybe if he did there wouldn't be incidents like these she would have to try and stop.
"Hot dog," she heard an awed and satisfied sigh come from somewhere behind her. She immediately ducked behind a nearby box and leaned over the side. It was then that she caught a glimpse of Toomes. He was standing in between all the boxes, his mask off as he surveyed all of the riches and tech he undoubtedly thought he'd already just succeeded in stealing. He was about to be in for a big surprise.
Using his moment of shock and awe to discover and explore what he'd just stolen, Danielle used his distracted moment to sneak into the cock-pit. It was... overwhelming to say the least.
There were knobs, glowing buttons on the top and bottom of the dashboard, plugs that she wasn't even sure what to do with, about a billion switches, and even more levers and latches. And to make matters worse, there were a large panel of windows that overlooked with sky down below, up above, and all around. Great... no pressure.
"Just breathe," she whispered to herself as she took a seat in one of the chairs. She wasn't sure why these were even here if no one was going to pilot... Wait, that was it-
Er-! Er-! Er-!
Danielle flinched when a loud alarm began to blare throughout the plane paired with bright flashing lights projected all throughout the cockpit. Danielle looked around to see what was going on and what was happening. Had she pushed a wrong button? Did the plane sense it was being hijacked? Was it about to self destruct?!
Danielle's eyes suddenly fell upon a flash red button up above that was labeled 'BREACH'. She looked around and off to the side were a series of cameras. On one of them, the same red light on the button was depicted just underneath the belly of the plane where she could see a red and blue figure struggle to kick the pair of wings attached to the plane. "Peter..." she smiled, despite herself. She found herself comforted knowing she wasn't alone.
"Urgh!" Apparently, she wasn't the only one who knew now too. She heard loud steps against metal as Toomes stomped back to the suit. She was wondering what Peter was doing out there if he already knew she was inside, but as the sounds of the wings detaching from the plane echoed into the cockpit, she realized that Peter was buying her time to land the thing herself.
"Oh, God..."
She didn't know how the hell to fly a plane. She'd never even been in a cockpit before, especially not one this big. Looking over Steve's shoulder while he piloted the Quinjet was definitely a whole other monster... Unless it wasn't.
Friday had piloted most of Tony's planes, jets, and helicopters... what if this one wasn't so different from the rest after all?
"Friday?" Danielle called out to no one in particular. "Friday, can you hear me?" No response.
Okay, maybe it was a manual override type of thing. After all, why would Tony put in these seats if he hadn't designed a manual override in the worst case scenario that the plane be hijacked by weapons dealers that had large metal wings powered by alien technology? Well, he probably wasn't expecting this exact scenario, but something similar maybe.
As Danielle began to desperately search for the manual override switch she was sure had to be installed somewhere in the cockpit, she saw a dark winged figure fly across the window panels in the dead of night. "Dear, God..." she muttered in horror as she watched the wings fly around the plane. Toomes disappeared into the night but she knew he'd be back soon and she had to be ready to land this thing by then. If not to stop Toomes then to save Peter who was still out there.
Danielle's hands and eyes began to try and search up and down the panel board of,knobs, switches, and buttons when a large scratching noise coming from the wall beside her sent Danielle rushing to the chair on the other side of the cockpit. She glanced over and saw sparks fly from the outside of the window. It dawned on her that Toomes didn't care about damaging the plane or what to took to kill her or Peter, he was blinded by rage at this point and she had to work quickly.
After her realization, it didn't take too long to find the manual override switch. Her fingers shook as it pressed it down. It took a few seconds, but almost immediately after the panel light up and a voice echoed through the cockpit speakers. "Manual override requires vocal and handprint security access. Place hand on scanner and speak for override access," a robotic female voice explained just as a screen appeared on the panel beneath button with the outline of a hand on it.
Danielle felt a jolt and shake from the plane. She screamed and pressed herself int the chair as the plane shook violently. What the hell was going on out there?!
Without further hesitation, Danielle planted her hand on the scanner. "Danielle Harper," she shouted over the alarms blaring throughout the cockpit in reside to whatever w going on out there.
"Unrecognized user. Access denied."
"What?" Danielle pondered aloud in confusion. Just then, the plane shook violently yet again, only this time Danielle could feel the plane free falling slightly. "Oh my God. Okay- um... Eris!" She tried again.
"Unrecognized user. Access denied."
"Oh, come on!" Danielle practically cried. "Come on- think, think, think." What were nicknames Tony always had for her? What would he put as her username? Surely he would give her this kind of access if all his systems accepted her universally. What was a name her called her? "Goddess of Chaos and Discord?"
"Unrecognized user-"
"Little Witch?"
"-Access denied-"
"God dammit, Tony," Danielle groaned before trying the last thing that could come to her mind. "Kid!"
There was a heavy pause where all Danielle could hear was the screech of metal from outside and the pounding wind against the windows in front of her face until eventually the robotic voice spoke again. "Access granted. Welcome, Danielle Rozália Harper. Manual override activated," the voice echoed throughout the cockpit just as all the buttons that had once been red were suddenly green. From inside the panels, the boards pulled aside as a weird wheel ejected from the front. It wobbled a bit, and with it so did the plane.
"Oh my God-" Danielle gasped, her two hands immediately coming up to steady it. It dawned in her then that she was really flying a plane. The control of an enormous plane was literally in her hands. "Holy shit... Okay..." she said in an uneasy voice as she gripped the wheel with all her might. She learned quickly that by pulling up, the plane went up, pushing down, sent the plane nose-diving, and the of course right and left made the plane curve left or right. "Okay... Not too hard. I can do this-ah!" Danielle screeched at the sudden appearance of the sticky web-slinger on the right of the cockpit windows, sticking to the window for dear life.
"Peter?!" She shouted at him after steadying the plane from when she had been startled.
Outside the plane, the web slinger seemed to be pointed to something. She followed his gaze and his point to see that he was pointing to something in front of the place or something coming up. She narrowed her eyes and leaned forward as she tried to get a better look over the large panel. Then she saw it: New York City...
The city looked beautiful and vibrant with all it's glory, but right now it looked terrifying. Especially in the sense that she was flying a large plane that was rapidly losing altitude and was heading directly towards the city.
"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God-" she muttered in panic. "What- what I do?!" She shouted back to Peter who was still somehow managing to stay stuck to the window. He made a gesture with his thumbs that she figured meant go the direction he was pointing. "Turn?!" He nodded just before a flying figure came looping around behind him. "Look out!" Before she could even get the rest of her warning out, Peter had let go of the window and had gone off to somewhere unseen on the plane jut before Toomes had attacked.
"Stay focused!" She shouted to herself as she felt the plane shake again. "Turn right,,, just turn right." She could see the enormous buildings getting closer and closer as the plane continued to fall. "Please work," she pleaded with the machinery just before violently turning the wheel. "Oh my- AH!" She screeched as the plane was suddenly turned at a 90 degree angle. The wings barely missing a few buildings as it whizzed by towards the beach. But before Danielle could correct the plane again, the wing slammed into the tower at Coney Island.
"Shit!" She cursed as the plane jolted and shook violently. Shit, shit, shit, shit. Time to go, she told herself as the plane nose-dived into Coney Island beach. "Holy-" Just then, a crash from the window beside her got her attention. She whipped around to see Peter had kicked in the window and was reaching inside to shoot a web that attached to her arm.
One moment, she was staring at her impending doom in the form of the rapidly approaching beach, and the next, she was being launched into the air and came hurdling into the arms of Peter Parker as they flew through the air in a tangle of limbs. She could hear crashing and explosions and metal crunching. Then in the blink of an eye, she felt heat, heat, then a large force hitting her entire body like a slap. Then it all went red and black after that.
—
Five seconds.
If Peter had been five seconds too late to get to the front of the plane, Danielle would've been dead in the plane crash. He felt his chest tighten at the thought of his closest friend dying in the same fiery manner that his parents had.
His parents...
Danielle...
The plane...
It was hot. And hard. And smokey. And bright... Was this Hell?
"Elle...?" he tried to call out, but it was like he was underwater. All he could hear was a loud ringing noise and all he could see was red and orange. He tried to take in a breath, but it was all smoke and fabric. Peter carefully ripped off the mask covering his face and began to sit up despite the soreness of his entire bruised body. His eyes slowly began to focus and he could see all the flames and charred metal around him. Was he sure this wasn't Hell?
"Elle?" He called out again, the pain rocking his body as he rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself onto his knees and then carefully onto his feet. He stumbled a bit as he tried to look around for her, but all he could see was fire, fire, and more fire. "Elle?!"
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he could see a small flurry of movement. He turned to see what it was just before a large, dark figure came launching itself at him full-force. "Agh!" He groaned at the hard hit and the equally hard fall against the sandy ground.
But, with the adrenaline in his system after being attacked, he was back on high alert and was back on his feet faster than before. He turned towards where the wing suit had crashed after flying into him and crouched defensively. He wasn't going to run. He was going to fight.
He watched, horrified, as the wings shook and pushed their way into position onto Toomes' shoulders. The terrifying glowing green eyes of the helmet turned to focus on him and he could hear Toomes' voice over the ringing in his ear say, "Hey, Pedro."
Peter took a staggering step back at the sight of the large wings stretching out their large wingspan jut before flying at him.
Off of immediate reaction, Peter ducked, successfully dodging the attack. Once the Vulture had flown over him, he spun around and shot a web towards him, but it was no use when he flew back around and pinned him to he ground with a metal talon.
Peter felt the weight of the wind and talon as it gripped him tightly. He screamed in pain as it pierced his already sore skin. He tried to use his strength to push him off, but when he lifted his top part of his body, a metal fist came down against his face again, and again, and again. But just before Toomes could punch him again, he froze. His metal fist was halfway towards hitting his face when it just stopped in midair.
Toomes tilted his head in confusion, but when he looked up, he suddenly realized what was going on. And when Peter followed his gaze to a few yards away, he understood as well.
Approaching from out of the flames was a dark figure. The figure wore a pale pink dress, that's skirt was torn and ripped to shreds. The mask on her face had been charred off and her hair hd been whipped by the wind to create a wild effect as it flowed around her face where her glowing gold eyes were, glaring directly at Toomes as her hand hovered in front of her.
Peter watched that with the flick of her other hand, the wings flew back and with a push of both her arms, the entire suit– including Toomes- went flying backwards into the air and away from him. But, he used the momentum to his advantage and flew directly at her. "No-!" Peter shouted as he watched the talons grab Danielle and carry her up into the air.
"Urgh!" She struggled against the metal before they abruptly let her fall down towards burning spikes of metal. She was planning on teleporting out of the way when Peter suddenly swung in, using a web attached to Toomes, to knock the pair out of the way of the fire, rolling onto the sandy patch of ground a few yards away.
Toomes was quick to follow up by kicking Danielle when she was down before she could even think about getting up, talon grabbed ahold of Peter next and slammed him into the ground, over, and over again.
"No!" Danielle screeched, her hand shooting out from the ground to grab ahold of a sharp piece of metal with her mind and launch it towards the wings. Toomes was quick to dodge it, the wings hitting it away from him before he set his sight on her. He landed beside her before his hand came out to grab a fistful of her hair, yanking it back until she was on her knees. "Agh!" She screamed in pain.
While Toomes had her subdued, he took the time to use the tip of the sharp metal wing to lift Peter's weak and limp body up off the ground where he had slammed him down. He was unconscious and dangling as though he were dead.
"Peter!" Danielle shouted, willing him to try and pull himself out of his unconscious state. She struggled and writhed in Toomes' hand when he yanked her hair again, eliciting another scream. "Let him go!" She shouted.
Toomes was tempted to take them both up into the air and drop them into the fire from a large height, but something just past Peter's limp body caught his eye. Could it be?
Sure enough, there it was. Lying in the sand, surrounded by the fire, was a perfectly intact box of Iron Man Arc Reactors spilled out of their box. It wasn't an entire plane's worth of tech and goods, but it was better than a charred plane and two dead teenagers. "Bingo," he uttered before dropping Peter from off his wing and shoving Danielle back into the sand. Pathetic.
Danielle landed with her face in the sand. She flinched as the power from the wings whipped it up into her eyes and nose. She coughed as the loud humming of the wings slowly faded into the background of the sounds of flames melting metal all around her.
Slowly, the teen tried to pull herself onto her hands and knees. Her hands coming up to clutch fistfuls of sand as her legs pushed her onto her elbows, then onto her knees, until finally her body was lifted off the ground. Her eyes were still filled with sand and it burned when she finally opened her eyes. It was hard to adjust to all the fire around her, but she was able to spot Peter a few feet in front of her fairly easily.
He was already on his knees where he sat, his eyes were red from the sand as well... And they were wide set as they stared in horror at something to her left. "Your wingsuit's gonna explode!" He shouted. Danielle followed his gaze to see what he was talking about, and what she saw was terrifying.
The metal wings that Toomes wore were now deteriorating. They were crinkled and bundled and twisted in all sorts of places. The metal was bent and the only reason it was airborne was from the Chitauri-powered turbines. The talons were locked around a box, but Danielle wasn't worried about the box, but by the fact that the suit attached to it was sparking all over the place. Peter was right, the suit was going to blow... with Toomes in it.
In an act of quick thinking, Peter shot a web out from his wrist, attaching it to the suit. As Toomes tried to fly away, Peter was dragged up onto his feet in an attempt to pull him back. If he let him get too far he would explode mid-air and would certainly be dead then. But even then it was a struggle trying to pull down a giant pair of metal wings with just two arms- super strength or not.
Suddenly, Danielle scrambled over. Her hands wrapping around Peter's wrist that was attached to the web he was sing to pull back Toomes. "Urgh," she groaned through gritted teeth as she tried to pull back with him.
Toomes spun around to face the pair then. He didn't have his helmet on this time and it was unsettling to see his face in the metal disaster that was breaking apart around him. "Time to go home, kids," he called down to them.
"We're trying to help you!" Peter called back as he and his partner struggled to keep their footing in this intense game of tug-of-war. But it wasn't enough.
Danielle watched as Toomes had one of the metal wings swoop down to cut the web attached to his suit, effectively causing the pair to fall on their backs in the sand. "Oomph," Danielle could feel the air knocked from her lungs with a final hit. Both her arms had flung back, and although the rest of her body felt numb after the fall, her left hand felt like it was cold... like her veins and her skin were suddenly no longer attached to her body. But quickly, she began to realize that the cold in her hand wasn't cold at all.
"AH!" She screamed as she immediately retracted her hand from off the burning piece of metal beside her. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as she clutched her hand title, trying to will away the excruciating pain. She rolled onto her side until her face was pressed into the sand beside her, her whimpers were muffled by the ground beneath her.
"NO!"
Danielle flinched and cried out at the loud sound of an explosion that was followed by a war, and heavy body throwing themselves on top of her already sore body.
It felt like a lifetime had passed.
She didn't remember the body crawling off of her, all she remembers was opening her eyes and seeing only a pitch black sky with bellowing smoke rising up into what little stars she could see. But despite the darkness, all she could see in her peripheral vision was orange, red, and yellow. It was all so bright, warm, and loud and all she wanted to do was submerge herself in water until she couldn't feel the pain in her body anymore.
"Elle...?" Danielle blinked once, then twice, and popped her ears a few times before she could really focus on the dark figure that loomed over her. She couldn't make out a face just yet, but she could feel the warmth radiating off of whoever this figure was. For some reason, she knew she was safe with this figure and trusted them enough to take her by her uninjured hand, pull her up off the ground, and help limp her out of the maze of fire.
The walk (more like limp) off of the fiery beach, helped Danielle reorient herself. It became clear to her about where she was, where she was going, what had happened, and more importantly: who she was with and how he was able to lift the pair up onto the top of the Coney Island Cyclone by using his strength, agility, and webs... Danielle then came to the conclusion that she had some weird friends.
It was cold on top of the Cyclone. That New York air came rushing in real quick from way up there on their perch where Peter and Danielle watched as loads of firetrucks, ambulances, and cop cars made their way to the beach that still continued to burn with the wreckage of the plane they had just crashed.
"What happened to him?" Danielle's voice was frail and sore when she eventually spoke up.
Peter glanced down at her as she stood beside where he sat perched on the edge of the wooden structure, his mask in his hands and hers on the floor along with her charred and sandy heels she'd discarded. He knew who she was talking about without needing her to specify. "I... I saved him from the fire and used most of my remaining webbing to, um... stick him to the surviving boxes of tech," he answered.
"You think they'll figure out what happened here?"
"Hopefully," he shrugged in response. "I left a note attached to him."
It started out soft and almost inconceivable. It was so quiet, Peter thought he might've been hearing things. Then it happened again. A soft sound escaped Danielle's lips. Then her head slowly picked up and he saw her smile, and he realized that it was in fact a giggle. A giggle that turned into a laugh, that turned into Peter smiling, which turned into the pair of enhanced vigilante teenagers laughing full-belly laughs on the top of the Coney Island Cyclone Coaster at 12 am in charred clothes with burnt skin, sandy feet, and disheveled hair full of dried blood.
It was a pretty weird predicament, the two of them. But at least they had each other to be weird, miraculous, and unpredictable together. As partners.
—
A/N: Yeah... Wow that's a lot to unpack, but PLEASE let me know what you guys think because next chapter is the last one of this arc then we get into our next original arc which I will be having so much fun writing because ACTION, DRAMA, andddddd ROMANCEEEEEEEE. ;) tune in.
Reviews:
zikashigaku: Yeah, she definitely looked badass fighting in a dress, but unfortunately it all got ripped to shreds. Bad things happen when Elle is in a dress -\_(:/)_/- lol, as soon as you think up a ship name, lmk.
PrettyRecklessLaura: the wait for the next update is over! Enjoy and lmk what you think!
