Us Against The World ｡ Peter Parker [2]

27 - The Devil In Hell's Kitchen

Royal Dragon was busy for a weekend, nearly every table full with hungry guests craving Dim sum and noodles. With a little bit of luck on my side, we had gotten a table near the front windows which overlocked the busy streets of Hell's Kitchen. Neon lights flashed down on our table through the windows but we didn't seem to mind when our dishes came around.

"Why did you pick this place for our date?" Peter Parker asked while attempting to pick up some of his noodles with chopsticks, but failing quite miserably tonight. Since Liz Allan's party, we hadn't spoken about how that night had panned out but my temper had eased off with the following day's break of dawn. I had almost completely forgotten how he had wanted to suit up and parade around the party for some popularity stunt. "I mean, fried rice is great but we had reservations at Olive Garden for weeks."

I hadn't mentioned that our plans had changed because of a little vision that had occurred at the party, something I didn't want to voice right now, knowing he would worry in some way. I didn't tell him that we were sitting in an overcrowded Chinese restaurant in the heart of Hell's Kitchen because I had a strange feeling something might happen here. "I thought branching out might be fun." The words tumbled from my mouth, a total lie but he didn't notice. "Plus, this place is pretty cool, yeah? The neon lights are kind of romantic."

Peter nodded vaguely, "I suppose so."

"Anyway, since Spidey didn't make an appearance at Liz's party, I guess you came to your senses." I noted seriously, taking a sip of my drink. Something flashed in his eyes and I automatically knew there was something he hadn't mentioned yet. "Pete, what happened?"

He leaned forward. "You know how I mentioned those crazy powered weapons that blew up the deli last week? Well, I found the guys that are supplying them, or designing them. Two guys were trying to sell them a few blocks from Liz's house, I noticed the purplish flare of power and decided to check it out."

"That's why you didn't go through with Ned's plan, huh?"

The chopsticks in his hands fumbled towards the table and he offered a pained smile before deciding on the fork by his wrist. He tucked back into his noddles and continued his little story. "Yeah, well that was a bad idea anyway. But while getting recon, my phone rang and ruined my hiding spot." I smiled and he sent me a look. "Anyway, they tried to get away and I went after them naturally, but then this guy came outta' nowhere and hauled my ass into the air."

My eyes narrowed, "What guy?"

While his mouth was full he gave a brief shrug of his shoulders, "I'm assuming the leader of the bad guy team up. He had these metal wings, super cool, and a mask that covered most of his face. I'm pretty sure his getup is powered by that weird power source that powers their weapons...anyway, after a good while of hanging upside down a parachute shot out of my suit and I was dropped into the river."

"All this went down and you didn't tell me?" I whispered across at him as our waiter went by, giving up a cheesy grin. Peter Parker was shrugging his shoulders again, clearly his go to move tonight. "Whatever, it's fine. Did this bad guy say anything? Did he try and find you in the water? Did you just swim back to shore?"

Darkness filled his eyes. "No, Mr. Stark came to help and literally fished me out of the water, which was freezing by the way. Well, not Mr. Stark, he's in some exotic place sipping on drinks or whatever, one of his suits got me. Through the communication system installed though, he told me to stay away from all this. He doesn't want me looking into the winged guy or the weapons. Can you believe that?"

Although Peter frowned upon the tight leash from his mentor, it didn't seem like the worst idea that Tony Stark wanted him staying low to the ground, to stay safe from this new threat that apparently was pretty determined to stick around. "Well, no. We're just kids, Pete. I know last year you went up against Green Goblin but look how that turned out? We scraped through by the skin of one's teeth and hey, I've got scars to prove that. Maybe Tony's just...trying to keep you safe."