hey everybody!
This is by far the longest chapter I have ever written, over 3,500 words. i'm super proud of it!
it covers the entire first episode, so give me a lot of feedback!
To be honest, i'm a little nervous at to how it is going to be received by you guys, since it is so long.
please let me know what you think!
Chapter 13
"I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE, YOU WALL CRAWLING MENACE!" Jameson bellowed from the TV in our kitchen, causing me to drop my spoon and splash cereal all over my blouse."IT'S THE DUTY OF EVERY NEW YORKER TO REPORT THE ACTIONS OF THESE MASKED MISCREANTS, SO LISTEN UP!"
I sighed and lowered my head onto the table. Peter had left a little over ten minutes ago, and the season apparently had just had its first in New York a plasma screen TV has a so called, "masked miscreant" lounging on it, and he is about to begin his first official monologue. Picking up my spoon and listlessly stirring the milk, I tuned my ears back in to JJ's rant. "AS LONG AS J. JOHNA JAMESON IS CEO OF DAILY BUGEL COMMUNICATIONS," ' Geez,' I thought, 'Doesn't that guy ever get tired of hearing his own voice?!' "I WONT REST UNTIL NEW YORK HAS SEEN THE LAST OF SPIDERMAN."
I smiled as I imagined that big screen spazzing out, then quoted, "and a good morning to you, J. Jonah loud mouth!" …hopefully in sync with my cousin. I giggled for a moment before stopping abruptly out of habit.
I pushed my chair back and grabbed T.B from the floor before rushing out of the house. "Bye Aunt May!" I called over my shoulder. "Bye dear! Remind Peter about the cake later, would you?" feeling guilty I kept running, pretending as if I hadn't heard her. On one hand, the cake was the last straw that pushed Peter onto his path to being the "ultimate" Spiderman and forming his team. On the other hand, it caused him to doubt himself and become depressed for a while. I… wasn't sure how to deal with that. Should I change it, or leave it be? For now I'll just have to play it by ear. Biting my lip I walked down to the bus stop and boarded. I usually left before Peter, but today he'd gone ahead of me in order to pick up uncle Ben's cake. Or at least, that was the plan.
When I finally arrived at school the bell had already rung, so I high-tailed it to my homeroom; ever so happy I didn't need a locker. Wait. Locker…
I slowed down to a trot and passed Peter's locker just as our favorite cameo'd creator let him out after Flash's "locker knocker time" scene. "What, again?" Stan asked in an exasperated voice. "You should punch out that big goon. Stand up for yourself, boy!" I stared, amused, as Peter started inching out and away from the locker with a wary expression on his face. With a roll of my eyes I grabbed his arm and pulled him away, then we both started walking. I threw a tiny wave over my shoulder, then winced as Stan lost his fight to a broom and got conked on the noggin. I duly noted that, at some point, it might be beneficial to ask Stan what he knew about my…uh…predicament. Maybe it's more common then I think..? Nah, I doubt it. Better scrap that idea…meh.
In mutual silence, Peter and I made our way to class.
~At lunch~
As I was piling my tray with Jell-O and something that might be meatloaf, I overheard harry talking to my cousin.
"Dude, locker knocker time again? Thompson's such a tool." He smiled widely at the lunch lady and moved on, still keeping his attention on Peter and their conversation. I moved to follow them as they walked back to the table and started eating.
"If that's the worst thing that happens to me today, I'm coming out ahead." Peter commented.
I, up until that point, had begun wolfing down my food as fast as possible. But as soon as I heard that line I pushed my tray off the table and prepared to move. Seconds later Peter tensed, and the world went still.
"Remember when I told you about spidey sense?" Everything faded away into grey hues, and I watched stunned as a safe fell on chibi Spiderman's head. "This time it's kicking up a storm!"
'I can see his day dreams now?!' I thought in terror.
'I guess I really was supposed to be frozen last night! Geez, am I frozen now?!' I tried to move my fingers and could do so no problem.
'What the heck is going on..?'
The world came swooshing back into action and I let out a small scream as Peter grabbed my waist and jumped over the table, tackling both Harry and MJ in the process. I grunted as I touched down, but the floor was…squishier than I expected. Looking down I realized I had landed on Harry, I then proceeded to squeal and blush beet red. Jumping up with a speed only granted by embarrassment, I looked away, trying to focus on the villains who'd just literally bust a hole in the side of the school.
"Attention students!" The one in the middle, Klaw, said. "Your principal has something to tell you." Magneto, another villain, used his gravity-based powers to guide the principal through the gap in the wall and floated him in front of us. I immediately felt sorry for the terrified man. "Students, your attention please. The school is now under the control of the... the…" "The frightful four." Thundra supplied aggressively.
"Uh, there's only three of you." MJ speculated, oh-so-helpfully.
"Quiet!" I ducked automatically as our poor principal was thrown into the wall behind us, and a large crater appeared where he hit. 'I hope he's ok after that…' I thought eyes wide. It looked a lot more painful than it did on TV…
"These guys are bad news." Peter said, never once letting his eyes leave the three as his inner narration took over.
"Wizard, master of high tech gadgets." A man in a purple metallic suit and matching helmet sneered back at me, the dark skin of his face and mustache the only things exposed by his outfit.
"Klaw, the villain made of living sound." Klaw glared directly at me, as if he could hear my cousin think as well. (He can't, I'm not breaking that much of the fourth wall, if it can even be called that.)
And my personal favorite, "Thundra. Ruthless warrior woman from an alternate future timeline." He turned to face, well, the camera, I suppose. "Don't ask."
"And trapster- no, wait. I already caught him." Finally Peter decided to hit play, the world came rushing back, and wizard came forward to hover above our heads.
"Before the trapster was captured, he learned Spiderman attends this school; and unless he gives himself up, we'll tear this places down, brick by brick." he sounded ominous… that is, until some idiot started to cheer. "we're serious!"
That shut him up real quick.
"Klaw…" right on cue, the villain raised his arm and his clawed hand started to glow. The roof trembled then started to crumble, threatening to collapse on our heads. "so, who is our mysterious wall crawler? A teacher? A student? A cafeteria lady?(now that's a disturbing thought…) they seem reluctant to talk. Klaw, make them listen to reason." I watched in horror as he fired up his weapon, then winced as a powerful sound wave accosted my ears. 'Here it comes,' I thought, anticipating Peter's next move. If I timed it just right…
"STOP IT!" we screamed simultaneously , and everyone in the cafeteria turned to look at us. "guys, NO!" MJ yelled. "Huh." He chuckled amusedly. "Definitely not Spiderman." Peter looked offended, while I merely offered a 'well duh' face.
"I'll crush the runts!" Thundra growled, clenching her fist.
"Don't crush them; make them an example of them." We both fell to the floor, screaming, as high frequency waves assaulted our ears once again, this time way worse than before.
"AHH! SHUT IT DOWN, I'LL TALK! I'LL TALK!" Peter pleaded, and the machine powered down. I stayed where I was, cradling my head on the floor. That definitely hurt WAYYYYY more than I expected! How is he even talking? Ow ow ow!
"Well? You have something to say, boy?" Wizard demanded and Peter spoke again.
"Listen up. Everyone needs to hear this." He then covertly grabbed a lunch tray off the table and threw it while crying, "FOOD FIGHT!" at the top of his lungs. After that, everything erupted into chaos around me, and food flew towards the villains from every direction. Thankfully I was able to dodge most of the food after I recovered enough, but Thundra wasn't so lucky. Gobs of the stuff clung to her face and hair, and a bowl of… milk, I think, came out of nowhere and slammed into her face.
"oh no, now she looks really mad. I should probably move before I get into her line of fire… Man, my ears are still ringing from that! I can't even hear what's going on…"
Meanwhile, oblivious to my near deafness, Peter had taken the food fight and used it as a distraction to change into his suit. 'I still can't understand how he bears wearing that thing under his clothes every day…' shaking my head to clear my thoughts, and hopefully the ringing in my ears, I scrambled away to the safety of a near-by table. Or, at least, I tried to. Sadly, Wizard had other plans. He decided to use me as one of his "floating hostages"… and I couldn't even fight back since I was floating in midair, completely surrounded by other people , and unable to hear much more than a quiet murmur beyond the blaring going on in my brain.
I didn't even notice spiderman had saved us until I was hurtling toward the ground.
"oofh-" I landed hard. All the air was knocked out of me in an instant, and my mind blanked. It was hard enough thinking with everything going on around me; my ears HURT, and the ringing had only intensified when I fell. I grimanced, perfectly ok with staying on the floor, but some random kid pulled me up to my feet and twirled me out of the way of falling debris. I tried to attempt a thank you, but I couldn't tell if what I'd said was audible or not, and ended up falling over again. Slowly, the beeping quieted and faded, until only a little white noise was left to affect my hearing. "Linzy!" I heard Peter's muffled shout, and he suddenly appeared over me. 'oh yeah,' I thought, 'I'm lying on the floor…' slightly disoriented, I pushed myself up with my elbows. I tried to ease him, but what sounded like: "I'm fine Peter. It's Harry you should be worried about."
Really sounded like: "H'ime fin peta, 's hrry ooh shood beh wor'ed 'bout.." to him.
He gave me a worried look and helped me to my feet.
"What's that about- Harry!" he took off running as soon as he saw his best friend unconscious on the floor. Yeah, I might've missed that part actually happening since I was having sensory overload…or underload…or… something… but I still knew.
I sighed in frustration. "It's been such a long day…"
With a frown, I gazed off after the web-head.
I knew he would go to the hospital after we were released. I knew he'd forget the cake because of what happened. I also knew he would be devastated. I groaned and allowed my head to roll backwards. An Idea had begun to form. It was incredibly stupid and reckless, but…
"Man, I'm gonna get in so much trouble later!" I whispered under my breath, gritting my teeth as I turned and fled the scene.
It took me forever to find the cake shop. T.B. had to go over the directions in the GPS ten times before I could even remotely begin to understand them, being the incredibly technology-disinclined girl that I am. Ironically, the one he led me to was the exact same shop the police car rammed into earlier in the episode. I could tell because the moment I arrived, the repairmen were replacing the glass and cleaning up the inside. As I approached my eyes widened at the amazing progress they'd already made. The shattered glass and brickwork had already been cleared away, and a beautiful new window was just about sealed into the storefront. The name of the shop, which couldn't really be seen in the episode, was clearly written in fresh red paint. "Romita's: fine cakes and pastries". As I walked closer, the repairmen drilled a hole in the doorframe and attached a small brass bell, then stepped back to allow me through. "Are they open?" I asked surprised at his action. He simply nodded and said, "They told me to let people in as soon as we were finished. Go on in." I smiled in thanks and entered the store, the new bell tinkling in a quaint way as I passed. "Welcome! What can I help you with, young lady?" an old man, probably the owner, asked cheerfully. He had fine white hair with traces of blonde, and a genuine grin stretched over his weathered face. "Oh, um… I'd like to buy one of your cakes, sir." I replied, cocking an eyebrow at the man's strange dress. He was in a lime green pantsuit with orange stripes running diagonally down from his shoulders to the hem of his trousers, and if that wasn't strange enough, held a cane shaped to look like a carrot stick. I bit back a chuckle.
"Well, you've come to the right place! What sort of cake are you looking for? We have only a few left, I'm afraid to say, but I'm sure you can find something to suit your needs!" I cracked a grin, instantly appreciating the distraction from my day. "Um, anything really. Do you have any simple cakes?" he smiled and snapped his fingers. "I have just the thing! Here, I'll just set them up on the counter for you." He disappeared into a back room for a moment and I tapped my fingers on the table. "Here we are!" he exclaimed, emerging from the back with four cake boxes balancing on his arms. He set them down on the checkout counter with a flourish, and I smiled again. It was like he knew I'd had a rough day and was doing everything he could to cheer me up. Or maybe he was trying to cheer himself up; I mean, his shop did get destroyed earlier.
"I have a four layer chocolate mousse cake, a two layer angel food cake with a generous amount of strawberry slices in between layers, a vanilla cake with M&M and Reeses frosting, and a single layered chocolate cake with a few butterscotch kisses mixed into the batter."
I froze up when I realized I had no clue what kind of cake I should get. "Um… could you give me a recommendation? I don't know what they'd like…" especially since I had no clue what Uncle Ben's favorite kind of cake was…
"Of course! Personally I love the angel food cake, which was one of the first recipes I ever learned. Though, my wife Romita baked the chocolate cake with the butterscotch kisses, and that's most likely to please a sweet tooth…"
"um, I'm allergic to strawberries, so I guess it'll have to be the chocolate. How much is it?" "That one's fifteen fifty normally, but since you're such a nice girl and my first customer today, I'll give it to you for ten fifty." "wow, really? Thank you!" I paid quickly and took the cake, smiling pleasantly as I gave my goodbye and stepped onto the sidewalk. "Have a great day, miss!" "You too!"
With a smile that lasted until I approached our street, and got there just in time to follow Peter into the house. As soon as we entered, Aunt May was on top of us. "Guys, Are you ok? I heard there was trouble at your school." Inwardly I sighed. Of course, I got here just in time for ANOTHER monologue. Peter's head whipped around and I stood shock-still in the doorway, the doorknob still clenched tightly in my hand. "I know what you're thinking. Spiderman lives at home with his doting old aunt? Loser!"( I was not thinking that.) "…Think again. My Aunt is pretty cool. She works all day, and Monday nights she's at yoga. Tuesday it's French cooking; Thursday: bowling. Her full schedule lets me come and go as I please. Of course I have to keep the spidey stuff on the down low, there's no way she would approve of her "little Petey" mixing it up with super villains."
I bit back a groan. 'Geez cuz, why do you have to talk so much?!'
"Those psychos never touched me, Aunt May."
He shot me a glance, prompting me to go along with it even though I almost went into a sound-induced coma earlier. I frowned at him, then turned to our Aunt and smiled. "Right. We're ok." "Are you sure, dear? You're ok?" I nodded and held still as she checked me over. Peter decided to freeze-frame again while she was coddling my face. "Now Linzy, she's another story. She randomly appeared on our porch one day, knocked out against our handrail. The girl's a cousin to me, but we really know nothing about her." He paused for a moment and I saw the white outline of the camera move closer to me, as if it were zooming in for a close up. I winked, imagining the surprised faces of anyone watching. "The other day she literally went up against a supervillain and almost died, and to top that off she was talking to this other girl as if she'd known her forever… but I can't even say anything about it since I was Spiderman at the time and shouldn't know any of it happened." He raised an eyebrow at me, then continued. "Still not sure how I feel about that."
Everything switched back on and Aunt May spoke. "You know what? If we had Norman Osborne's money, I'd put you both in private school immediately." I smiled, then set my bag down by the door. "Yeah, that'd be sweet. Hey, when's dinner?" Peter asked casually. "It's almost ready." She said, taking the salad bowl to the table. " Put the candles on the cake." Uh oh…here it comes… "Cake?" he echoed, letting his bag drop to the floor. "Yes, the cake you promised to get in the city today. Ben's favorite." She turned around to see my cousin bending over the table, looking defeated. "You didn't get distracted again, did you Peter?" He sighed. "Um, I'm sorry aunt may. I guess I…" "Hey guys?" I interjected, holding out the object in my hands awkwardly. "I kinda guessed this might happen, because of everything that happened today, so after school I went and picked one up. I didn't know what kind to get though, so I grabbed this. I hope It's ok." Yes, I knew I was taking a big risk here, and yes, I knew it could backfire horribly. But… I already knew what was going to happen. I could change it for the better… at least; I'm hoping it's for the better. Aunt May took the cake from my arms and opened the lid. "Linzy, it's perfect. Thank you!" she grinned at me, taking the cake into the dining room to get the candles." I turned to Peter, but he was nowhere to be found. I let my eyes wander to the stairs, and then took off after him. I knocked quietly on his door and went inside. "I'm sorry, Pete. I didn't remind you this morning to get the cake, so I ended up getting a cake he may have hated. I know how important he is to you guys." He looked up from the picture he held in his hands and offered a weak smile. " no, it was my fault, Linzy. It was important to me, but I forgot anyway." "hey, the only reason I remembered is because I got lost on the way back home and passed a cake shop!" he winced. "You got lost?!" oops, wrong excuse. Now he feels even guiltier. "You're missing the point! It's not your fault, so get off your butt and come down to dinner where a large chocolate –caramel cake awaits!" I grabbed his hand and pulled him downstairs.
After dinner
I crept down the hall and pushed my ear up to the door. No, I'm not some crazy stalker. I wanted to see if anything had changed. I heard muffled voices on the other side of the door.
"…The way I see it, you can either accept Fury's offer and take advantage of his training and tech, or keep fumbling along like a clueless rookie and have Linzy picking up the pieces behind you. What's it going to be, Spiderman? Are you…" I pulled away from the door and paced back to my room. I'd heard enough. Apparently I'd only eased his conscious a little. That was good, I guess. I exhaled sharply. So much for changing things…
REVEIW!
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