Kate slowly opened her eyes, the world around her coming into focus. She glanced around, remembering that she was still in the dorm room of the same girl who had most likely saved her life last night. Her savior was nowhere to be seen, however, and a part of Kate momentarily panicked. What if she had gone somewhere to out her activities? What if the girl had taken her phone and called her mom?
A quick glance over to the nightstand revealed it was still there, untouched.
"Relax, Kate," she muttered to herself in a hushed tone. Spider-Man clearly trusted whoever this was enough to bring her here in the first place, so she knew there was no reason to worry. She still didn't know the mysterious woman's relationship to Spider-Man, if there even was one to speak of, but she knew the web swinging superhero wouldn't just bring her to anyone, especially with a wound like hers.
Kate tried sitting up, groaning as she did. It was a much slower process than normal, but eventually she managed to push herself up to a sitting position, swinging her legs over to the floor. She reached to clutch at her midsection but jerked her arm away initially at its tenderness. It was likely to be that way for a while, at least if she had to guess. Kate had broken bones and sprained ankles, but never had been cut to anything near this extent before, so she could only guess when she'd be back to her normal self.
She then caught sight of a blanket and pillow lying on the floor a short distance away. Kate started to feel a little guilty as she realized this must have been where the girl who treated her injury must have spent the night. Whoever she was, she had given up her entire night for a stranger. She hadn't struck Kate as being the most outgoing, but still.
The door to the room suddenly opened, and the girl walked in. She paused briefly when she locked her eyes with Kate, as if she'd been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to, before stepping in and shutting the door again. She was carrying a small bag in one hand, which she came over and sat next to her.
"Here," she said. "It's not much, but hopefully it'll give you some energy."
Kate peered inside, opening the bag a little more with her hand to see an assortment of fruit. She looked back to see the girl rolling up the blanket that had been on the floor. Once that was done, the girl got out some clothes and set them next to Kate as well.
"I know I'm taller than you, but hopefully these shouldn't be too long," she said.
Kate could only look at her in bewilderment.
"Why are you doing all this?" she asked. It was one thing to treat her injury, but all these little things on top of that...
The girl looked her in the eye.
"Because it's the right thing to do," she replied. More than her words, there was something in the young woman's eyes that stuck with Kate even after she turned to attend to something else. It wasn't anger or bitterness at having to give up her bed for the night, and it hadn't seemed meant to intimidate. It just seemed to convey...strength; that seemed the best word to put around it. A humble, steady strength of will, like whatever needed to be done was going to get done under her watch, and that was all there was to it. In a way, it made Kate feel safer just being around her, even if she didn't have evident superpowers.
At that moment, a potential realization dawned on her.
"You're his girlfriend, aren't you?"
The woman stopped what she was doing, turning her head to look at her.
"Why would you say something like that?" she asked.
"I don't know, you just...you just seem like the kind of person a superhero would be attracted to," Kate replied. "Obviously I don't exactly know you that well, but I can tell your strong, kind, and would never give up on someone. I've seen all that in him too."
The girl looked at her with a smile on her face.
"I appreciate all that," she said, "but like I said before, I only know him a little through helping him out with stuff like this."
Kate simply smiled and nodded in response. The girl was obviously loyal as well, even if that story wasn't exactly holding up. There were millions of people in this city, and now that Kate could think a little more clearly, it seemed much more probable that this girl already knew Spider-Man than just some random fateful encounter like what she had described. Kate respected her for it though, so she decided not to push the matter further.
She had her own worries right now anyway, and right now, the main one was getting home.
Peter stirred awake, the sun's rays finding their way through his mask lenses enough to open his eyes. Immediately, he checked to see if he had any messages from the doctor regarding an update on their visitor. Unfortunately, there was no such message. There was nothing from M.J. yet on Kate either, but that wasn't as surprising. It had been a long night for them as well, especially the latter, so there was always a chance they could be sleeping in, or perhaps M.J. was simply handling the situation. Besides, in a scenario like that, no news was likely good news.
He didn't believe that was true for the first situation however, so he slowly forced himself to his feet. He likely hadn't gotten that much sleep, if the current position of the sun was anything to go by, but he did feel better than he had before he went to sleep. He stretched his arms and legs out a little, still wanting to make sure he was as functional as possible.
In the middle of doing so, he heard an explosion. He turned around and realized that it came from the hospital, observing it just in time to see something, or maybe someone, appear to fly out of the hospital in a hurry, leaving a slight streak of energy trailing them.
Something told Peter that his visitor had woken up. He jumped off of the building, his senses now fully awoken from the noise of the event. He fired a web, taking one good swing so that he entered the building in the same area that their visitor had departed. He looked around to see hospital staff scrambling around, likely making sure everything and everyone was okay. Peter didn't see anyone appearing to be injured out in the open, so that was a relief at least.
He then noticed the doctor he'd been in contact with was running to him.
"I'm sorry," she said, "it was so fast; I wasn't even in the room when it happened..."
"I'm guessing he's awake now," Peter said as more of a statement than a question. "Is anyone hurt?"
"No, I don't think so," the doctor replied.
"Was there someone who can tell me what happened?" Peter asked.
The doctor looked around, finally grabbing a nurse nearby.
"She can tell you," the doctor said. "She was in the room with him."
"It happened so fast," the nurse said, still trying to catch her breath. "He woke up just a couple minutes ago, and he said he needed to 'find him.' After that, he ripped off the IVs and put his helmet back on, and he started glowing with some kind of blue energy before blasting a hole in the roof!"
"I see," Peter said. It was all strange, but at the same time, just another day in his crazy world.
"Who do you think the 'him' he was referring to is?" the doctor asked Peter.
"I don't know," he said. He hated that he had no answers for them, as he could see the fear in their eyes. There seemed to be a collective sense of foreboding in the room; a sense that something was coming and none of them were prepared for it. Peter knew his best, if not only real course of action right now was to find this stranger and, hopefully, get some real answers from him. He thanked the medical staff for their hard work before swinging back onto the roof.
By now, the stranger was long gone from the view of even his enhanced eyesight. Deducing that his best bet was to try track the stranger's energy signature, Peter tapped into his mask's system, using a special upgrade he'd recently put together that could track any anomalous energy signatures like the one left by their visitor. Sure enough, after a few moments, the system picked up just the slightest traces of unidentifiable energy, and Peter was off and swinging in its direction, really hoping that he'd soon have a clearer picture.
Kate sat on the bus, slumped over with the hood on over her head. Her own clothes from the night before, as well as her gear, were stuffed in a large dark bag that she had resting on the floor currently, though she maintained a grip on it. They weren't too far from where she could walk to the neighborhood. Her new friend was sitting next to her, having insisted on coming and repeatedly ignored Kate's efforts to assure her that she would be fine. They hadn't exactly carried much conversation on the trip, which was fine with her. She was still tired and sore, and it was painful if she stretched or moved in certain ways, so a peaceful and quiet ride was the most appealing option right now.
There was still a part of Kate that wanted to try and get to the truth more regarding who this girl was in relation to Spider-Man. They hadn't talked about it since when they were getting ready to leave, but she had a nagging feeling in her brain that the hunch she had earlier was more on the nose than the girl would be willing to admit. That was exactly the issue though; between last night and this morning, she had continually stuck to the story she'd told about randomly meeting Spider-Man once and him coming to trust her with his injuries.
For all the parts of that story that likely weren't the truth, it was clear that he DID trust her though, and she was clearly unwilling to break that trust, which she respected. It was just kind of annoying to Kate that he had figured out who she was so quickly, yet she still had no real idea as to who was really behind his mask. Really, she felt kind of petty for being like that, a feeling which she normally prided herself on being above, but it was what it was.
They finally arrived at the stop closest to her home, so Kate got up.
"Thanks again for everything," she said.
"You sure you don't want me to come with you?" the girl asked.
"No, I can make it," Kate replied. "Think of it as you did too good a job."
She then took her leave, stepping off the bus and immediately setting out towards home. She was able to walk almost normally now, but she was still a bit ginger as she moved along, making sure to step lightly as much as possible while still maintaining her strides. This meant that it took longer to get home than normal, but soon she found herself on the steps of her home.
Kate made her way up to her room, walking past the room where her mom was on the phone without detection, making her way upstairs. Once she was there, she discarded her borrowed clothes in the hopes of avoiding any unwelcome questioning from her mom regarding what had happened the night before, finding a casual outfit to change into. Even the changing process hurt a little, but she powered through it.
As it turned out, her timing was just right, as she heard a knock on the door as soon as she completed her outfit. Putting away her borrowed clothes and gear, she moved over toward the door to open it. Sure enough, it was Kate's mom.
"There you are," she said. "I didn't hear you come in."
"Yeah, just got back a little bit ago actually," Kate said, trying to at least make it mostly the truth.
"Well, I was glad to hear you finally got out and saw some people," her mother said, "even if you didn't say anything about it."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Kate replied in a casual tone. "It was kind of spontaneous. I thought you might be on a work call or something."
"I'm just glad you're okay," the woman said. "Speaking of work, I'm actually about to take off here in a half hour for another trip, and I was wanting to see if maybe you would be willing to come this time?"
Kate had to fight against rolling her eyes too hard.
"Mom..."
"I know, I know, but I really think you would like it," her mom defended. "It'd be good for you."
"I appreciate the offer," Kate said, "but I'm just not interested. That's not going to change."
Her mom let out a deep sigh.
"Okay, then I'll see you in a week."
Kate nodded, and her mom reached out to give her a hug. She fought against groaning from the slight pressure being put against her wound but ended up letting out a light noise.
"You okay?" her mom asked.
"Yeah, yeah," Kate said, thinking as fast as she could of an excuse. "I fell last night, landed kind of hard. I'm just a little sore, but I'll be fine."
"Okay," her mom replied. "Call me if you need anything."
"Okay," Kate said. "Have a good trip."
Kate closed the door as her mom walked away, leaning her head against her hands and letting out an annoyed but also relieved breath. While she was grateful her mom seemed to end up buying her reason for being gone overnight, she was still trying to get her to come on one of her business trips. Kate knew her mom meant well, but after all their other conversations over the last few years, she was really, really starting to get tired of it.
A little exasperated, Kate went over to her bed and lay down. The fruit her new friend (whom she realized now she never once asked the name of) was holding off her hunger for now, and she was still tired, so she hoped some further rest would help her be on the mend.
After all, she had a feeling that Spider-Man would need her again before this whole mess was over.
Wherever this guy had gone, he hadn't exactly gone in a straight line.
Peter had found himself practically zig zagging around Manhattan in pursuit of the stranger, with no luck yet. The system in his mask remained locked onto the boy's energy signature, but he was having to hurry in order to keep it from growing too faint and losing it. Whoever this person was, they got around FAST!
His mask alerted him to a call from Happy, so he answered.
"Hey man," Peter answered.
"Peter, where have you been?" Happy asked. "Did you even come home last night?"
"Nope," he replied, trying not to let his conversation distract him from maintaining course towards his objective. "Sorry about that; it's been a crazy 24 hours or so. Also, you better be careful, or I might actually start to think you're worried about me."
"Kid, it's my job to worry about you," Happy replied. "Anyway, everything about that small ship and the stranger inside of it has been all over the news."
"Yeah man, working on getting some answers," Peter said. "Hoping that I'm gaining ground on him as we speak."
"Oh, okay, well...be careful I guess," Happy replied.
"When am I not?" Peter questioned. "Actually, on second thought, don't answer that."
He heard a chuckle over the line.
"Kid, sometimes you really do remind me of Tony."
Yep, that solidified it; he was turning into his mentor.
"Thanks," he replied. "I'll let you know what I find out."
He then hung up and resumed his chase. Finally, after some time, he could see a figure in the distance. It looked like they had stopped and were looking around or something.
"Hey!" Peter shouted, drawing the figure's attention. He landed on a building nearby, with the figure flying up to him.
"Oh man, I've been looking for you," the helmeted figure said as he floated in front of the building.
"Well, if you hadn't felt the need to make such a dramatic exit, I would've actually been there a lot sooner," Peter explained. "But anyway, proper introductions: I'm Spider-Man."
"You can call me Sam," the boy explained, "Sam Alexander."
"Okay Sam," Peter said, "why have you been looking for me specifically?"
"You were the first person to be at my ship, so I guessed you were likely an important person for me to warn about what's coming."
"And just who or what might that be?" Peter asked.
Before he could get an answer, Peter could hear a growing sound coming from the sky, and his spider-sense was also going off. He turned to see what looked like a large object high up in the sky, streaking towards the city.
Peter turned back towards Sam.
"A friend of yours?" he asked.
"No," Sam said, looking up at the object. "Not even close."
Hope you all are still enjoying!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" John 20:29