"If you'd like to gather round," said Gwen as a 3D tree-like structure appeared in front of her, images of various animals adorning its branches; fish, rhino and birds. Everyone gathered around it and watched it with fascination- everyone except me and Peter of course. As the 'Tree of Life' began its lecture, Peter made to walk off and I contemplated following him. As I did Gwen walked after him, intercepting his escape with a 'hi' and called him out on his fake identity.
The tree droned on for only a few more seconds, disappearing abruptly and signalling that Gwen needed to get back to leading the group. A few last words were said, warnings probably, and then she walked back over.
"Alright, guys," she said to catch the attention of those chatting. "I'm going to take you to the Bio-reactor room now."
She led the group onwards, I went to follow when I heard the sound of something hitting the floor and turned sharply to see Peter apologising to a man as he picked up a file from the ground. He paused slightly as he did so, and when handing it back to the man seemed like he was semi-reluctant to let it go. The Oscorp man made no move to thank him and just walked off Peter looking after him in curiosity before he followed after him, and I rolled my eyes before going after him.
The door led out onto an outer corridor which traversed the edge of the building and showed the hexagonal shapes which decorated the outside of the window rather than making the windows themselves. There were several other people walking along as well, most walking in my direction which became problematic when I realised that they were extremely strict on security and I was stopped several times. Mentally noting that I needed to have got one of those ID badges, although flashing the S.H.I.E.L.D. badge was a lot of fun- even with all of the dirty looks I got and the fact that Peter had now disappeared out of sight.
I continued to walk along, putting up with the occasional stops until I came across a room that looked hopeful. The Biological Development Room, embroidered next to it the symbol that made up the Decay Rate Algorithm, and I walked over to look inside. Peering through the window I could see a conveyer belt carrying plastic trays, a mechanical arm placing a number of miniature metal containers inside- the spider thread? But the narrow window didn't provide much of a view and I couldn't spot Peter inside.
Next to it was the screen which would unlock the door, a number of what looked like boxes attached together and as I tried to remember what the combination was the door opened. Peter looked startled to see me there, nearly walking into me and I raised a finger to my lips as a couple of scientists walked down the outer corridor, thankfully not noticing us or the open door.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him before he could me, then turned around and began walking down the corridor. As expected he followed me, running to catch up and then falling in step beside me. "Just count yourself lucky I have no intention of telling anyone about this."
"Thank you," he said, sounding genuinely grateful. "But can I ask you something?"
"Why aren't you telling anyone? And why does it feel like you're following me?"
"That's two questions," I pointed out, flashing my badge as a strict-looking woman opened her mouth to speak to me. "The reason I'm not telling anyone is because it's not any of my business- unless you're a threat which I somehow doubt."
"Thanks," he turned his head to look at me. "And the other?"
"That's classified," I said with a smile. "She doesn't look pleased."
I was talking about Gwen, who I could see through the glass, and as we rounded into the room she walked up to us.
"I think I'll take my leave," I said, patting him on the back. "Good luck."
I may not have had a spider sense, but there was a voice at the back of my head that told me I shouldn't delay this any longer and so I made to leave. However I wasn't abandoning this yet, I knew Peter was going to take the underground and it was just a matter of figuring out which one he was going on. I guessed he would go to the closest station.
I run over my mental map that I'd worked on yesterday, summing up which one I should go to and beginning my trek. Waiting for Peter was probably the smarter thing to do, but I didn't want to play stalker and if I happened to miss him then I could always follow up on the police reports.
Or just wait for reports of a giant lizard attacking a bridge, because that would be a big clue.
Although it looked like I didn't have to wait. Up ahead of me was an older man with a ring of salt and pepper hair around his head, a large bald patch on top and a beard of a similar colour. He was wearing tracksuit bottoms and some sort of hooded jacket with sleeves that probably used to be white but was now a mottled combination if grey and brown. In his hands was a brown liquor bottle which he occasionally top sips from as he chatted to some other guy.
He was the one who put the bottle on Peter's head; or at least I hoped he was, after all I doubted he looked familiar because of his heroic deeds in the film. He went down the steps which led to the platform I had dismissed, but now took too if it gave me a chance to be there. Making sure not to keep too close, I followed him down and through the place until we reached the platform.
"Are you sure you're not following me?" I heard a voice say, after several minutes of waiting.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I countered, turning to face him. "After all I was here first."
He conceded to the point and we spoke no further as we waited for the train, which arrived shortly afterwards. I made no point to follow Peter and got on ahead of him, only making sure that the old man was in the same part as I was. As expected though Peter joined us, dumping is bag on a bench and lying on it with his feet up against the window. He was asleep before we'd left the station.
I had the bench opposite him, keeping a serious mask on to make sure no-one bugged me and kept away. My last experience here hadn't been so great, although it was with Steve so it was an honour to have him sticking up for me and whatnot.
The train lurched into movement and soon we were heading on our way. My whole body was tensed up as I awaited the inevitable and tried not to make it look like I was up to anything suspicious. A woman sat next to Peter, chatting to her friend who was standing up and ignoring the coffee cup in her hands. I could see a man on the single seat behind her and opposite them were a number of men who were having a good laugh about a story one of them was telling.
After a while I started to get impatient, and was just about to over there and do it myself. But as I shifted the man walked over, leaning over Peter to check if he was faking before putting the bottle on his head and stepping back to admire his handiwork. For a few painful seconds nothing happened. Peter's eyes flew open and before anyone had realised how or why, he was attached to the ceiling and looked about with shock.
Everyone looked at him and for a few seconds he did, before falling off and landing on his butt.
"Disgusting," said the woman who'd had the misfortune of having the beer spilled over her, tugging at her top and apparently oblivious to Peter's trick. "I smell like beer."
Peter got to his feet and went over to the woman.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that," he said as he put his hand on her shoulder. "I didn't mean to do that. I didn't mean…"
He trailed off as he tried to take his hand off her, but found that her top was attached to his hand and I looked away promptly as dirty top man walked over.
"What are you doing?" he snapped. "Get your hand off her!"
"I'm trying," Peter said apologetically, tugging a bit harder and still failing. Dirty top man shoved him and I heard the distinctive rip of the top. Some of the other men laughed, the woman gasped and dirty top man did not sound pleased.
"Are you kidding me?" he snapped. "Are you freaking kidding me?"
"Get him Rhodey!" one of the men laughed as dirty top man (I couldn't call him Rhodey for obvious reasons) lunged at Peter who was preoccupied with the fact he couldn't detach himself from the bar. Peter swung himself around the bar and brought his leg around to kick dirty top man over onto the seats.
"I'm so sorry!" apologised Peter again as one of the women called out for the other men to fight. I figured now was as good a time as any to get involved, and with one quick movement jumped up and put one hand on the pole, the other on the railing and swung myself forward to kick one of the men squarely in the chest and to the ground. I dropped myself as Peter swung both legs around this time and caught the second man in the chest. The third man ran at us and I swung my leg around to knock him over, cursing at the minimal space as Peter knocked him sideways to stop him falling on me.
One of them got up again, looking over to Peter's board and back at Peter again.
"Oh man, not my board, please," said Peter as he realised what he thinking, and with a sigh I rolled forwards and swung my leg hard down on his back as ducked to get the board. I grabbed the board, pulling it out of his reach and for good measure delivered an uppercut as he debated whether or not to attack me.
Behind me, one of the other went for him and Peter jumped, ending up straddling the pole and trying to get free. I was about to go help him when the pole broke free and swung upwards to hit the man in the jaw, the momentum propelling itself to hit dirty top guy in the face.
"I'm so sorry," apologised Peter again, moving around to apologise to the other guy and just hitting them both in the face again with the pole, all the while apologising. All of which would have been hilarious if he hadn't clipped me around the face with it.
"Do you always apologise this much?" I asked him after we had got off, rubbing at the shallow cut on my forehead. "Relax, I can take care of it."
"You can heal yourself?" asked Peter, as the cut faded away. "How-how-"
"It's one of my tricks," I replied nonchalantly with a shrug, then reached into my pocket to find one of those cards I was required to carry with me. I think Fury was after some better behaving people for the Avengers. "And you look like you have a few of your own so I'll give you this."
He looked at the card blankly then back at me, confusion written on his face.
"But I don't have… tricks," he said.
"You do now," I said with a smile, before offering a goodbye and then walking off.
Dramatic much?