Spyder and The Avengers

Chapter 19 - A Pink Lair

Waking up, I groaned and began to stretch. I had this horrible headache, but no idea why. Without opening my eyes, I reached out with my senses.

Scratchy cloth sack over my head. Wrists and ankles bound to a hard wooden chair. Sitting in cold wooden chair, anchored to floor, in middle of a room. Room was dark, dank, and dusty. Only one window, with thick metal bars. Door under window was barred, padlocked, and chained.

I grunted as I struggled against my bonds. After a few minutes, I heard a satisfying rrrrip. I rotated my wrists. Much better. I pulled the sack off my head. The bright light blinded me. No, not bright. Just dim. Carefully, I reached down and untied my ankles.

I stretched my legs, hearing a few bones pop. Holding onto the chair for support, I pushed myself into a standing position. I wobbled a little.

Tentatively, I held my wrist out and flexed it. Sure enough, a thin line of webbing shot out and stuck to the heavily reinforced door. Phew.

I grabbed the strand and tugged, hard. With a loud bang, the door flew off its hinges and towards me. I jumped, spinning in midair, and clung to the cement ceiling as the door slammed into the wall.

"Whew," I dropped to the floor, fifteen feet below.

I cleared my throat. My voice was really hoarse. I needed a drink. I crept out of my "cell" and saw a long hallway lined with doors exactly like mine. I didn't hear any sounds from those rooms, so they had to be empty.

Thank goodness for that.

It was slightly creepy, walking down a silent, empty hallway. Every time the lights flickered and buzzed, I flinched, preparing to attack.

As I walked down the seemingly endless hallway, I decided to get my mind off of my current, um, predicament. I let my mind wander, and it landed on Chase. The way he yelled my name, the way he pounded on the wall... It was almost as if he cared. Well, of course he cared. But, like, as more than just a school bud. Like there was something between us.

I shivered.

Then, my senses picked up a barely audible sound. Without realizing it, I was listening to the echo of my footsteps, waiting to see if they rebounded back differently. This was it. I felt my heart speed up just a little. Maybe I would finally get out of here. God knows how long I was trapped in that cell, unconscious and utterly helpless.

After a few minutes of light jogging, I saw it. The door at the end of the twisty, almost endless, hallway. I flung out a web and pulled. The steel door came flying towards me, but I just made a well-timed backflip right over it. The door clanged against a wall behind me. Ahead of me, well, was what looked like a millionaire's daughter's evil lair.

Ooh. Ominous.

It was high-tech, sparkly, and posh. And pink. Lots of pink. As I stepped through the doorway, my bare feet met thick magenta carpet. I sighed deeply. If my feet could sigh, they would have too. This was a billion times better than that hard, rocky, bumpy, rough hallway floor. It was dense, soft, and almost warm.

Several tiny alarms went off in my head. Carpets weren't supposed to be warm. Evil lairs weren't supposed to be plushy and pink. I had to get out of here.

For safety measures, I shot a web string towards the ceiling and scaled it effortlessly. I pressed against the neon pink surface and released my web.

I couldn't help but marvel at how I would be scared to death of this less than a week ago. Now, I was practically a pro at this superhero stuff. I had powers, a city to protect, and a fashionable suit. And don't even get me started on my newest and only nemesis. She was a real work of art.

All of the sudden, that very work of art stalked through a door on the other side of the room. My eyes widened, and I nearly fell from the ceiling. I resolved to remain absolutely still until absolutely necessary.

Marceline slumped in a high-backed pastel pink chair, muttering to herself. With barely any concentration, I picked up what she was saying.

"Stupid citizens. They will never see me for what I am, a leader. Who's smarter than the best of them combined, including that double-crossing Pepper."

I smirked and inched closer to get a better look. She appeared to be... fiddling with the arm of her chair. After a moment, she laid back and smiled, satisfied. I watched a humongous flat-screen television rise from the floor in front of where she was sitting. No, wait. It was a computer. The biggest one I'd ever seen.

Shiz.

What was she doing in her pink evil lair, with this giant computer?

She began to type. With my super-enhanced vision, I was able to make out the word "spider" in the search box. She pressed "Enter" and a million pictures of the arachnids popped up. Frowning, she clicked on the text and typed in a new search.

This search was "spyder". I was so surprised, I almost lost my grip on the ceiling, again. That was the superhero name I had chosen. But how had she known that? How did she know that I was Spyder? I hadn't been too obvious... Right?

A lot less pictures popped up for this search result, but some were pretty accurate. Most of the pictures, a good seventy-five percent, were grainy photos of me. Well, in my suit. Swinging through the city.

But why was she, ah, stalking me on Google?

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<·<Pepper_B_Parker*Alias:_Spyder*Position:_S.H.I.E.L.D._agent>·>

So, here we all are. Last chapter.

No, just kidding! I would have let you know at least one chapter in advance if we were nearing the end. Did I almost give any of you a heart attack?

Whoops.