Girl Erased

Homecoming 3

"How are you going to find Peter?"

"Powers," I say, walking upstairs to an empty room.

"Okay, what do you need? Can we help you?" Ned asks

"I need white noise and a blindfold."

"Whi- what?" M.J. says, following us into an empty bedroom, "Will this work?" she asks, handing me a radio from the dresser.

"That should-"

"I found a tie on the ground!" Ned shouts, running into the room. I set the radio to static and wrap the tie around my eyes.

"Um, okay, I'll be back in a minute." I close my eyes and focus on Peter and the keychain and I see Peter being dragged behind a van holding high-tech weapons.

"Oh! My butt! Ow!" One of the men in the car powers more energy blasts at Peter, causing him to lose his grasp on one of the webs. Just as he powers up the weapon once more, the van meets a speed bump. The whole car wobbles, making him accidentally fire a hole in the van. I pull the tie off my face and turn around to look at Ned and M.J..

"What's wrong? Did you find him?" Ned asks

"Yeah and now I have to go save him," I say, standing up and walking downstairs. I walk through the house and just as I'm leaving, one of the drunk teenagers from before yells out to me.

"Where are you going, red girl?"

I glance back at the house and slam the door with my mind before flying off to find Peter.

After a minute I see Peter standing up, surrounded by fallen garbage cans. I land and he launches a web at the door which flies off the van.

"Shortcut?" I ask

"I guess so. Great," he says, looking at me and turning to run through someone's yard. We jump a tall metal gate and slide over a parked car. Two men are playing ping-pong in a garage as we run across the yard.

"Hey, guys. Good game. Have fun." Peter yells, waving, and I launch the ball to the opposite side of the table. The two men stop to watch us in disbelief. A dog runs into Peter, jumping up and barking and I pick up one of his toys and throw it with my mind.

"Hey, hey, buddy. Sorry, no time to play. Here, go fetch."

Peter swings through the neighborhood, hanging on tree branches and streetlights and I fly past him, trying to keep up. We run into some guy's backyard and see him barbecuing.

"Smells really good!" Peter yells. Peter swings into an adjacent backyard, skimming the pool and getting tangled in fairy lights, landing in yet another yard. I look at the people who got splashed by Peter and apologize. I launch myself over the fence and see Peter scaring away two little girls.

"Oh, hey, guys."

"Aahhh!"

"No! No!"

"Peter, we have to go!" The van zooms past us and we land, just missing it. "Almost got you."

Peter swings up to the roof of a house and starts to find his way back to the van and I fly up, trying to get a better view. I get up into the air and feel something grip my shoulders. I stop using my powers and the person holding me flies us over Peter and grabs him too.

"What the hell?"

We start to wrestle the man and Peter gets startled by his green glowing eyes. Peters suit starts to beep and blink and my hair flies over a sensor. A parachute erupts from his back and tugs both of us down. We struggle for a minute and I get myself free just before we plunge into water. I start to sink when I feel the parachute and I pull Peter up to the surface. I swim us to the shore when Iron Man swoops down and picks us up.

He sets us on a children's jungle gym and Peter peels his wet mask off his head. I reach for the back of my head and feel the chunk of hair that was snipped by the parachute.

"He just, he just, like, swooped down like a monster and he picked us up and, uh, he took us up, like, a thousand feet and just dropped us. How'd you find us? Did you put a tracker in my suit or something?" Peter asks after explaining everything to Iron Man.

"I put everything in your suit. Including this heater."

"Whoa!" Peter says, slouching as his suit steams and dries.

"Whew, that's better. Thanks."

"What were you thinking?" Tony asks, "I thought you were going to keep him safe." He says, looking at me

"Wait what?" Peter asks, doing a double-take, "The guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons. I gotta take him down." he says, answering the question.

"Take him down now, huh? Steady, Crockett, there are people who handle this sort of thing."

"The Avengers?"

"No, no, no. This is a little below their pay grade." I say, holding back a grin

"Anyway, Mr. Stark, you didn't have to come all the way out here. We had that. We were fine."

"Um, he's not-" I start to say

"I'm not here." Iron Man's helmet opens, revealing a space where Tony's face should have been, "Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or you would be toast right now. Thank Ganesh while you're at it. Look, forget the flying Vulture guy, please." He says, looking at the both of us.

"Why?"

"Why? Because I said so! Both of you, stay close to the ground. Build up your game helping little people," He turns to focus on Peter, "like that lady that bought you the churro. Can't you just be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?"

"But I'm ready for more than that now... like Ruby!" I sit up and look at him, confused.

"No, you are not."

"That is not what you thought when I took on Captain America."

"Trust me, kid. If Cap wanted to lay you out, he would've. Listen to me. If you come across these weapons again, call Happy." The Iron Man face closes and the suit flies off, leaving Peter and me alone, cold, and literally in the dark.

"That's awesome." Peter mumbles.