Peter Parker

David and I were driving for a very long time. We were out of New York City. Actually, it wasn't just New York City. We were out of New York completely. We kept close to the black ambulance, but not too close. David made sure not to be any less than four car lengths away, but no more than about six. As we drove, following the black ambulance, I was a bit appreciative of the tinted windows, windshield included. The last thing I wanted to do was deal with law enforcement coming after us because of reports of two masked men in a vehicle. However, I was still wondering where this ambulance was headed. My anxiousness wasn't being helped by the silence during the ride. Ever since we decided on pursuing the ambulance, neither David nor I said a word. None of us even bothered with the radio. I guess both of us understood how treacherous this situation was. Craig was in the back of the ambulance, being taken to God knows where. We were pursuing him in an SUV. None of us had weapons or gadgets. Were there even weapons in the SUV? I didn't even know. The most glaring issue to me was David being with me. I was sure David was more than capable of handling himself. But his power, while equal parts impressive and amazing, wasn't guaranteed to help out on the offensive front and it was also his only power as far as I knew. He wasn't bulletproof. I wasn't either, but I at least had my other powers to depend on.

This whole situation had me more than a little vexed.

Fortunately, David broke the long silence.

"Shit!" he said.

Unfortunately, whatever relief I had was swiftly tossed out of the window by the following feeling of alarm.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I looked at him.

"The gas light is on."

I looked at the dash. Sure enough, the gas light was, indicating that we're dangerously close to being out of fuel. "Well, that's not good."

"Not good at all." David went quiet for a moment. "We got two choices. Both of them have their pros and cons."

I frowned underneath the mask. "Do I even want to know?"

"If I were to be honest, not really. Choice one, we end our pursuit, ditch the vehicle somewhere, and find our way back to New York. We would be able to avoid suspicion if we're discreet enough, but getting Craig back would be out of the question for today."

"…And choice two?" Something told me I wasn't going to like it.

"We make our move now and force the ambulance off of the road. We might get the authorities down on us, but we'd get Craig back sooner."

Yup, I was right. I didn't like it. Still, what other choice did we have? I sighed. It looked like things were about to get real heavy.

"Let's go with choice number two," I decided.

"I was afraid you'd say that," David replied.

"We're going to have to go with codenames from this point forward. You wouldn't happen to have one, would you?" I didn't expect to him have an answer.

"…Prodigy." I looked at him, a bit surprised. "It's a nickname Scott and the others would call me. I didn't like it at first." Even with his mask on, I knew he was frowning. "I was a little sensitive about my academic performance. It always made me feel some type of way when people in the know don't think I'm not so smart without my power." He looked at me. "You might want to get into the seat behind me." I was a bit confused, but I didn't question him. I unbuckled my seatbelt and crawled into the second row of seats. After sitting behind the driver seat, I buckled up. "Are you situated?"

"Yeah."

"Good, because this is going to suck."

I heard the engine roar. The SUV was moving faster. On instinct, I grabbed the handle above the window. I felt the SUV swerve as it weaved through traffic. Some seconds later, we pulled up on the left side of the black ambulance. It was at this moment that I realized why David wanted me to move seats.

Yup. This is certainly going to suck.

The SUV suddenly moved to the right, colliding against the ambulance. The glass shattered. I closed my eyes quickly and shielded them with my forearm. I felt the pieces of glass hit my arm. As relieved as I would have been to not get cut, the SUV was still in motion. It then came to a sudden stop after I heard a crunch of metal. The handle snapped. Fortunately, the seatbelt held up.

"Hey, Spidey, you okay?" I heard David ask from the front seat.

"I've been worse," I groaned. "How're you?"

"I'm supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." I looked over at him. He had his forehead against the steering wheel. He took in a breath before he lifted his head. "We need to go check up on that ambulance."

"Oh, right."

I unbuckled the seatbelt and opened the door. As I stepped out, David's… Prodigy's door opened as well. We looked at each other briefly before we walked around the SUV and looked at the ambulance. The ambulance ended up crashed against a tree headfirst. I took a look around and saw we were in an area with a lot of trees. David and I both walked to the ambulance quickly. Once we were close enough, I grabbed the handle of one of the backdoors and opened it, destroying the lock in the process. I forced the other door open and looked inside to see…

"…What the hell?!" Prodigy whispered out.

There was nothing in the back of the ambulance. There was no stretcher, no medical equipment, no first aid kit, and, most importantly, no signs of Craig. The back of the ambulance was empty.

"There's no way," I uttered out. "There's absolutely no way. We saw somebody get loaded up in there, didn't we?"

"I know I did," Prodigy confirmed.

"So what happened? How did –?"

Before I could finish that statement, I heard the sound of a car door opening. I turned my head just in time to see a figure run out of the vehicle and into the trees. Prodigy and I looked at each as if each one of us was checking to see if the other saw a person running before the two of us ran after him.

As we moved through the wooded area, I was trying my best to use my senses to find that person. To say it was easier said than done was a huge understatement. I started to hear everything – the rustling of feathers from birds, the feet of insects hitting the dirt as they crawled, even the heartbeats of squirrels. At one point, I thought I heard the footsteps of the person we were pursuing, but it turned out to be a coyote that was running away. Eventually, I came to a stop.

"We lost him," I said. I then turned my head. "I guess we have to take the L…" I trailed off when I realized Prodigy was no longer with me. I looked around, trying to see any sign of him. "…on this one." I huffed out a breath before I called out. "Prodigy, where are you?!"

I went searching in the area, calling out Prodigy's name in an effort to find him. On the inside, I wasn't feeling too good. Today was just an all-around failure. Craig was gone and now Prodigy was missing. I hated this. I hated all of this. Eventually, I just stopped walking and came to a stop. I leaned back against a tree and just looked forward. Could things get any worse? I've been asking myself this since Carmilla got sidelined due to my negligence.

"So let's tally it up," I muttered to my friend. "I'm a shit teammate, I'm a shit friend, and when it comes to being Spider-Man, the only thing I'm usually good at, I've become shit at that, too." I bowed my head. "…What am I good for?"

For better or for worse, I was taken out of my thoughts when I heard the sound of rustling leaves. I was about to ignore the sound, but there was a bit of a tingle up my spine. I grimaced underneath my mask before I ran towards that direction. I was running for about a minute before I saw the sight of two people wrestling around on the ground. I narrowed my eyes as I continued to approach them. When I got close enough, I came to a stop. I found Prodigy.

And he was fighting Prodigy.

"What the hell?!" I shouted out. Apparently, it was loud enough to get their attention. The two of them separated and moved to their feet.

"Spider-Man, I'm glad you're here!" one of them said. He pointed at the other. "This guy's an imposter!"

"I'm the imposter?!" the other Prodigy replied, sounding offended. "You're the imposter! You're the one who attacked me!" As he said this, he pointed right back at the other.

"I did attack you – after you attacked me!"

"As if, bitch!"

"What did you just call me?!"

The two continued to argue back and forth. I started to get a headache from it all, and it was getting worse second by second. I leaned my head forward and pinched the bridge of my nose. I was trying to think of a solution for this, but the more they bickered, the more I felt like grabbing both of their heads and slamming them together to knock both of them out. Tempting as that was, I knew doing that would cause even more issues.

"Hey guys, would you two please be quiet so I can actually think?" I asked politely. The two of them continued their bickering. I rolled my eyes before I yelled. "Guys, shut the fuck up!" The two of them stopped arguing before they looked at me. "Thank you. Obviously, this argument is going nowhere, so just give me some moments to think, okay?"

Neither one of them said a word. I huffed out a breath before I pondered how I was going to figure out who the real Prodigy was. The obvious way was to ask questions that only the real Prodigy would know. There was just a small issue. Well, not a small one, but a huge one. I had to be careful about what I asked. Even if the real Prodigy would be able to answer, I'd be revealing information to the fake one, and I was sure this guy was working with the government. Asking him Cyclops' real name or even an alias would have been a no-go. Asking Prodigy which college he was attending would put him and any other ESU student, faculty, and possibly even alumni under the government's microscope. I then remembered Prodigy's power. He can mimic skills and knowledge. So there had to be something I can do that the real Prodigy could mimic. But what could it be? After a few seconds, I got it.

"I have an idea," I announced. I stepped up to the two of them until they were within arm's reach. I then brought my hand out. The two of them looked at me in confusion. After some seconds, I figured my idea was a bust until one of them brought their hand out. From there, the two of us reenacted the special handshake shared between me and Ned. I then stopped halfway through and backhanded the fake Prodigy in the face with a swiftness, knocking him out. I stepped up and looked down on him after he fell to the ground. He then transformed. He turned into a figure with a white mask and a blue suit with red gloves and boots.

"A shapeshifter got the drop on me," Prodigy said. "But now I have to ask, what happened to Frictor?"

"I don't know," I said with a shake of my head. I pulled out my phone and checked for reception. A bit to my relief, I had a decent amount of bars. "I have to make a couple of phone calls." I dialed up a number before putting the device to my ear. After some seconds, someone picked up.

"Hello?" a woman's voice said.

"Hey," I greeted back. "It's me, Spider-Man. I… I need a favor. Where are you now?"

"I can't disclose that location."

I nodded. "I get that. But can you at least tell me if said location has a holding cell?"

"…It does. Why?"

"It's a long story. I'll explain later. I just need you in a rather open room in about five minutes… and have some agents with you. Can you do that for me?"

"I think the room I'm in will do. You're not screwing with me, are you?"

"I'm not. This is serious."

"Okay, I'll trust you since Carmilla does."

"Thank you. I'll call you in a bit Bandalore."

Before she could correct me, I ended the call. I then called up Ned. After he picked up, I explained everything to him. A few minutes later, a portal opened up. After I picked up the shapeshifter, I beckoned Prodigy to follow. We stepped through the portal and into a parking garage. I then showed Ned the name of the person I was calling – Yo-Yo Rodriguez. From there, Ned opened a portal for us, which led straight into a room. Yo-Yo Rodriguez was there with a whole bunch of other SHIELD agents. As the portal closed behind me, her eyebrows rose up.

"…You two got this guy?" she said, her voice carrying a bit of surprise.

"Yeah, we did," I replied. The other agents swarmed in. I didn't bother protesting when they took him away from me.

"Who is this guy?" Prodigy asked.

"Dmitri Smerdyakov," Yo-Yo explained. "He's mercenary and hitman from Russia who is extremely high up on the World's Most Wanted list. He goes by the moniker of Chameleon. I guess you can figure out why."

"Yeah," I replied with a nod. "We sort of saw it firsthand."

"How did you guys come across him?"

I sighed. "It's a long story. To give you a TL;DR, one of our own got abducted. We tried to rescue him, but I think we got duped into pursuing a decoy. And that guy, Chameleon, was not only a driver, but was likely posing as a nurse that I know."

Yo-Yo shook her head slowly. "That's crazy."

"It's been a crazy past several days or so," Prodigy spoke up. "I hate to say it, but the X-Men are down bad."

I was then reminded of Carmilla. "How's Carmilla doing?" I asked.

"She's doing better," Yo-Yo replied. "We're still monitoring her. But she's conscious. I'd offer to let you see her, but she's not in this facility. But I can relay a message."

I frowned. "Yeah, if you would kindly, tell her what I told you, and tell her that I'm sorry I couldn't rescue Frictor."

Yo-Yo nodded. "Will do. Now if you guys can wait here, I'll arrange for you to be dropped off back in New York."

An hour later, we were back in New York. After being discreetly flown into JFK, we took a taxi back to Manhattan. When I got home after David was dropped off, I was ready to crash. So, I walked straight to my bed. I sat down on it. I pulled out my phone as I remembered that I needed to tell Scott about what happened. Before I could even pull up his number, Scott's name flashed on the screen as he called. I raised an eyebrow before I accepted the call and put the device to my ear.

"Hey, I was about to call you," I said. "About what happened to-"

"You can tell me later," Scott interrupted. "I need you suited up ASAP. There's a situation happening at Hammer Industries."